


Duality

by wroth_and_ruin



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover, Gen, Is the basic premise, Other, Plot necessary OCs, Tsuna falls through a hole in space and gets stuck in the bnha universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 12:52:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wroth_and_ruin/pseuds/wroth_and_ruin
Summary: The thing about Tsuna’s life was that it could never just be normal.





	1. The Boy Who Fell From the Sky 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I have no idea what I'm doing!
> 
> Let's begin! :D
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

The thing about Tsuna’s life was that it could never just be normal.

Case in point: waking up when he didn’t remember falling asleep. Alarming circumstances for most people, yet when Tsuna opened his eyes to find himself staring up at the sterile, white ceiling of what could only be a nurses’ office, all he could muster was a sense of dull resignation. Apparently he’d managed to somehow get knocked out on his morning walk to school, which meant Reborn was going to kill him. He’d probably been ambushed, although his hyper intuition hadn’t alerted him to anything out of the ordinary…

Wait.

His brow furrowed as he tried to fight off the last lingering cobwebs of sleep. Why hadn’t his intuition alerted him if there had been danger? Ever since the conclusion of the representative battles a month ago, his innate six sense had been even more hyperactive than usual, pinging an alarm if someone so much as sneezed in the corner of his periphery. He’d been even jumpier than usual as a result and he knew his friends had noticed and worried. 

Gokudera and Yamamoto had barely let him out of their sight for weeks, showing up on his doorstep to walk him to school, sticking close throughout the day, then walking him home and hanging around until he had to get ready for bed. 

And it wasn’t as if he minded their hovering, far from it in fact, and indeed he understood their concerns only too well, but he’d felt terrible for worrying them needlessly. He’d tried countless times to convince them that he was fine, really, but they wouldn’t be budged. And it wasn’t as if he’d really tried that hard to talk them out of it in the first place, selfishly enjoying their constant presence despite his guilt. 

Which was why he’d been so surprised when he’d come downstairs that morning and didn’t find them waiting in his kitchen being fussed over by his mom. He’d been even more surprised when they didn’t meet him at the crossroads between their houses as usual. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Onii-san and Kyoko headed to school that morning either-

Panic surged through him and his intuition spiked in response as he scrambled to sit up, struggling against sleep-heavy limbs and an odd feeling of vertigo when he finally hauled himself upright. It was beyond strange that he hadn’t seen any of his friends that morning, especially considering Gokudera and Yamamoto had all but sewn themselves to his sides the last three weeks, it was downright suspicious! 

Add to that the fact that he had apparently lost consciousness somewhere between his house and school and he didn’t need hyper intuition or an overactive imagination to tell him something was horribly wrong, not when the voice of experience was whispering to him that something was just Not Right about this picture.

Speaking of, his intuition nudged him a heartbeat before a voice spoke up from somewhere around the vicinity of his elbow. “I wouldn’t move around too much if I were you young man. You’ve had quite a shock to the system, near as I can figure.”

Tsuna gaped down at the tiny old woman peering back up at him from the bedside.

She looked...odd. Her long white coat was standard enough for a nurse or doctor, and the color-blocked dress she had on underneath bore a passing resemblance to a uniform of some kind, but that was were normality ended. She was also wearing a pink face-guard with a transparent purple visor, along with matching pink boots and bright yellow gloves like the kind his mom wore to wash the dishes. Her iron-gray hair appeared to be pulled up into a normal enough bun until he realized it was secured in place with what looked like a _syringe_ of all things, not to mention she was so short he was pretty sure even his own unimpressive one hundred and fifty eight centimeters in height would have towered over her if he’d been standing.

‘I know you’re supposed to shrink as you get older but isn’t this taking it a bit far?’ He knew he was being rude, staring at her with his mouth hanging open, not saying a word, but the truth was he was completely gobsmacked. This wasn’t what he had been expecting at all.

The woman’s eyebrows rose higher and higher the longer he sat in stunned silence. Finally, when it became obvious he either wouldn’t or couldn’t speak she sighed and shook her head despairingly. Stretching up on her toes, using her cane for balance, she reached out and tapped two gloved fingers on the underside of his chin. “Close your mouth dear or you’ll start to catch flies.”

Startled out of his stupor, he felt himself flush crimson with mortification as he obediently snapped his jaw shut with an audible click. “Please excuse me ma’am! I didn’t mean-well, it’s just that I thought-or I didn’t think! I’m-! Confused. I am very confused.”

“Well that makes two of us young man.” She turned to pull a wheeled metal tray almost as tall as she was closer to the bed in one smooth, practiced motion. 

He’d automatically opened his mouth to offer his help but closed it again without saying a word when he saw she didn’t need it. 

She grinned up at him, having understood his intention nonetheless. “I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive dear.” She chuckled when he ducked his head, abashed. “But I appreciate the thought.”

Her squeaky voice was as amused as it was kind. He chanced a small, tremulous smile of his own in response when she didn’t immediately begin to scold him, lowering his shoulders from their defensive hunch around his ears. Without his friends around he tended to fall back into old habits when dealing with strangers; namely, always assume the worst. It was nice to be proven wrong every once in a while.

She tapped the top of the tray to call his attention to the items resting on it. With a sick jolt, he recognized his container of Dying Will pills, his contacts, and his wallet with his student ID taken out and resting beside it. There was also a plastic pitcher and a cup but he barely noted that fact as he surreptitiously clenched his right hand into a fist, hidden beneath the blankets. He breathed a silent sigh of relief when he felt the familiar tightening of warm metal across his knuckles, and some of the tension unwound from the knot in his chest. That brought down the chance of this being a Mafia-related thing to almost zero. No self-respecting famiglia would have let him hold onto the Sky ring if they meant to keep him here under lock and key.

“I hope you can forgive the intrusion.” She indicated the items laid out between them. “I don’t normally make a habit of going through my patients’ pockets, but with circumstances being what they are, I’ll admit I had little choice in the matter.”

She continued before he could ask her to clarify her statement. “Sawada Tsunayoshi, fifteen years of age, first year student at Namimori high school, five feet two inches in height, weighing in at approximately-” she ran a professionally critical eye over his slight frame. “One hundred and five pounds.”

She paused to purse her lips in mild, grandmotherly disapproval. “A bit underweight dear, you might want to consider adding more protein and complex carbohydrates to your diet.”

He squeaked, face once more aflame with embarrassment at her frank assessment. “Yes ma’am!”

She nodded once, satisfied, and went on. “Born October fourteenth-happy belated birthday young man-blood type A.” She regarded him levelly through her visor. “But no Quirk listed. Now why might that be?”

He blinked at her, perplexed. “Ma’am? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Well you’re not alone. Quite a lot of that going around today in fact.”

With a small huff of effort, she leveraged herself into the chair located by the bed and leaned her cane, which he suddenly noticed was also shaped like a syringe, against the armrest. Then she simply sat and watched him in silence for a long, long time. 

He fidgeted minutely with the blanket, bunching it up and smoothing it out in turns as he waited for whatever was coming next. He had about a thousand questions he wanted to ask but something was telling him to hold his tongue and wait it out. So that’s what he did, difficult though it was.

After a length of time that felt like a small eternity to Tsuna the woman sighed and sat forward in her chair. “You understand why all of this is a problem, don’t you young man?”

He shook his head. “No ma’am, I’m afraid I have no idea what’s going on.”

“We ran your name and fingerprints through the Quirk Identification Database.” There was something sharp and not quite accusatory in her tone when she said this. “You’re aren’t registered anywhere. Moreover, the Principal made more than a few phone calls today to Namimori Town, specifically to the city hall. There is no birth record on you, nor are there any school records on a boy your age under the family name ‘Sawada’ having ever attended school in Namimori.”

“There is no record of a ‘Sawada Tsunayoshi’ having ever been born in Japan in the last fifteen years.”

She kept her eyes trained on his face with grave severity. “Care to explain why that might be young man?”

“What?!” He stared at her in shock, mind whirling as he tried to make sense of all she’d told him. “But that’s-! That can’t-! I-I-I don’t understand! That can’t be!”

“I can assure you Principal Nezu ran the results multiple times. They all came back the same.”

“But-but-but-” he stuttered. “But that just can’t be! I-I’m real, I’m here, I’m me! I have a mom and a dad and-and-and everything! I exist, so what-?” 

He flailed his hands uselessly as true panic began to set in. What exactly was going on here?! Was this a test? Some harebrained scenario cooked up by Reborn to, what, test his ability to lie under pressure?

But something told him that wasn’t the case. His intuition or maybe his familiarity with his insane tutor, hard fought and hard won over the last year or so. Oh it was something Reborn would do of course, but there was just something off about it. He didn’t know how to explain it but it just didn’t feel like a typical Reborn plan. It wasn’t high-stakes enough, it was too random, or maybe not random enough. Regardless, something was telling him that this wasn’t one of Reborn’s schemes and he was going to listen to that feeling. After all it had yet to steer him wrong.

He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly in an attempt in organize his racing thoughts and calm his pounding heart. He had to at least try to be rational about this; he wasn’t a kid anymore. He was in high school now for goodness sake, he’d certainly survived much more harrowing battles than this. Hadn’t he stood up to not only Xanxus, not only Byakuran, but Reborn as well during the whole Vindice-Kawahira-Arcobaleno mess? Hadn’t he managed to get them to listen to him, at least a little? Never mind that he still wasn’t sure, exactly, how he’d managed that, the point was he’d done it. Did he really think this petite gray-haired grandmother was scarier than _Reborn_? Of course not.

He could do this.

“Ma’am there must be some kind of mistake.” He was secretly proud of himself when his voice remained steady despite his fear. “I promise you my name really is Sawada Tsunayoshi, son of Sawada Nana and Sawada Iemitsu. And I really was born fifteen years ago in Namimori. I don’t know what’s going on but if I could just call my-” 

He stopped as something she’d said earlier finished processing in his mind. He frowned. “Wait. Wait you said the principal had to make some calls to Namimori?” He looked over at her. “Does that mean I’m not currently in Namimori?”

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Indeed not. You’re currently sitting in the U.A high school nurses’ office in Mustafu.”

“M-Mustafu?” He repeated, stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar word. “I don’t-Yuuei high-? I don’t understand. How did I get here?”

He’d initially assumed he was in the Namimori high nurses’ office, but now that he looked around more closely, it was plain that couldn’t be the case. Even with the privacy curtain drawn it was easy to tell that this room was much, much bigger than any public high school would ever be able to justify or afford.

Preoccupied as he was, he didn’t see the way her brows flew upwards in surprise at his question. “We were rather hoping that was something you’d be able to tell us dear. It’s not every day a boy falls out of the sky directly over our campus you know.”

He whipped his head back around to gape at her. “Fell out of the-?!”

“Oh yes, cause quite a stir too, what with the explosion and all.” The nurse climbed carefully down from the chair, took up her cane, and began to pace. “I daresay if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of two of our Hero course students, young Uraraka and young Midoriya, you and I would not be having this conversation. Or any conversation at all for that matter. If they hadn’t gotten to you before you reached the ground well…it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Tsuna could imagine. He could imagine only too clearly. He went a bit pale thinking about it actually. Sure he’d taken some bad hits and made some hard landings in previous fights, but that was with his Flames activated and hyper dying will mode engaged. To think of hitting the ground unprotected made him shudder with horror and his stomach twist with nausea. 

“I’ll have to make sure and thank them,” he blurted, eager to distract himself from his own morbid train of thought. “Uraraka-san and Midoriya-san right? Those were their names? I should thank them. For saving my life.”

She waved away his words without stopping her pacing. “Nonsense dear, that’s what the Hero course students are here for. Heroics.” 

She paused for a moment, tapping one finger on her cane and staring into the middle distance, deep in thought. “None of us were counting on you being as in the dark as we are about this whole situation. My leading theory was Quirk experimentation gone awry, but if that’s off the table...could’ve been caught in the cross fire of someone else’s Quirk perhaps, I suppose that’s as possible as anything.”

She turned towards him so fast he jumped nearly off the bed in surprise, not having thought her capable of such a spry maneuver. She jabbed the point of her cane in his direction, making him let out a soft, involuntary ‘eep’ of fright as she did. “You, young man, what’s the last thing you remember prior to waking up in my infirmary?”

“The last thing I remember was my walk to school this morning. I don’t remember if I got there or not though.” He automatically cast around for a clock. “I left the house around seven fifteen maybe? I was actually on time for once. I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep?”

“Hm? Oh.” She pushed back one baggy sleeve to check her watch. “It is currently ten seventeen at night.”

“Huh?!”

“Yes you’ve been asleep for almost fourteen hours and I was beginning to worry. My preliminary examination didn’t show any external or internal injuries but you were certainly unconscious when they brought you to me.”

He hurriedly threw aside his blankets and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, placing his socked feet flat to the floor. “I-I have to call my mom! She’ll be-well, no, she won’t but somebody will definitely be freaking out if I just disappeared for an entire day!”

He tried to push himself to standing but was stopped by a dizzy spell before he’d even managed to lift off the mattress. He slumped over with a groan, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands as his head spun and his stomach rolled unhappily.

“Here you go dear.”

He lifted his head with no small amount of effort and forced his eyes open to find the nurse at his side, cup of water in hand. He took it gratefully and drained the glass dry in one long pull, not having realized how thirsty he was until that moment. 

She took the glass and refilled it wordlessly from the pitcher on the tray. She passed it back to him and gently pulled his unoccupied hand toward herself. “Have some gummies.” She dropped several brightly colored candies into his open palm. “We’ll get some real food into you in a moment but I have a few more questions for you first. Alright?”

“Yes ma’am.”

He dubiously examined a gummy shaped like an orange slice for a second, internally wincing at the thought of what Reborn would say or do to him if he ever found out Tsuna had blindly eaten something offered to him by a stranger. But. His hyper intuition wasn’t reacting at all, which meant there was no threat currently in the room with him so. He shrugged and popped the gummy in his mouth. It was startlingly citrus-y and really, very good. 

“Oh goodness gracious young man, there’s no need for such formality. _Recovery Girl_ is fine.”

“Re-Recov-? I’m sorry, could you repeat that please?” He rubbed the back of his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly. “English was never my strong suit.”

She smiled indulgently. “Shuzenji Chiyo then.”

He inclined his head in a shallow bow. “Thank you for taking care of me Shuzenji-san.”

“It’s what I’m here for dear, no trouble at all. Now.” She folded both hands over the top bulb of her cane. “You said the last thing you remember from this morning was walking to school? Did you notice anything out of the ordinary about the trip?”

He started to shake his head no, then hesitated.

She noticed. “Even the slightest variation could be important.”

“Well...a few of my classmates live nearby and we usually walk together but. They weren’t there this morning.” He tried in vain not to worry about why that might be.

“And you know these classmates well enough for this to be a strange occurrence?”

“Oh, um, yes? Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto have been my friends since our second year of middle school. And Onii-san, ah, that is, Sasagawa Ryohei, he’s a year ahead of us but his sister is in our grade. They’ve lived only two blocks away from my house for my whole life. It was really weird not to see them.”

She hummed in contemplation. “And these boys, what are their Quirks?”

There was that word again. “I’m sorry? I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Their Quirks dear, what are their Quirks? Are any of them capable of teleportation, or warping perhaps?”

He stared at her, jaw slack and eyes wide. “Telepor-?! No, nothing like that!” _‘Warping’? Like what Bermuda could do?_ His heartbeat sped up. “I-I’m sorry ma’am-ah, Shuzenji-san, but. I’m not entirely sure what it is you’re asking me. What is a ‘quirk’?”

Her head rocked back slightly on her neck, clearly startled. “You...young man are you trying to tell me you’ve never heard of Quirks?”

“No? I mean, yes. Yes that is what I’m saying.”

“Dear, being Quirkless is nothing to be ashamed of,” she said kindly, bewildering him further. “I understand your reluctance, but there’s no need to lie about-”

He immediately began to flail in denial, interrupting her. “No! No, I mean, I’m sorry really, but I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. What do you mean by ‘quirk’? Like. Like Yamamoto’s on the baseball team, if that’s what you mean? Like a hobby? But they don’t usually meet on Tuesday mornings, which. Made it weird that he wasn’t there? To walk to school? Yeah.”

Tsuna cringed at the lame ending to his admittedly garbled speech but the nurse didn’t seem to notice. 

She had returned to pacing, faster now than before, and the point of her cane clicked loudly off the tile with her every step. She was muttering to herself under her breath and he only caught bits and pieces.

“Never heard of Quirks, but that would mean...and there were no records but the school ID is legitimate…nothing when we ran his prints but...know they said the warp gate was powerful but surely not...don’t think he’s that good a liar but I am getting on in years...”

Her pacing ended as abruptly as it had begun and she sighed once more. She turned to him, expression apologetic. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait a bit longer for dinner young man. Principal Nezu needs to be informed of this immediately. Here.” She pressed another handful of gummies on him which he accepted without protest. “These should help tide you over until then. Can you stand?”

He nodded as he chewed, shoved on his shoes, and carefully got to his feet. The dizziness had vanished and although his muscles trembled with fatigue he was able to stay standing. 

“Alright then. Follow me.” She pulled back the curtain and headed for the door thus revealed on the wall opposite the bed.

He took a step after her and paused, glancing back at the tray containing his belongings. “Um, Shuzenji-san, is it okay if I take my things back now?”

“Hm? Oh yes of course dear feel free. No need for us to keep them now that you’re awake.”

Relief flooded through him as he quickly shoved his contacts and pills in one pocket of his uniform slacks and his wallet in the other. 

Comforted by their familiar weight, he obligingly followed the diminutive woman out the door and into the hallway.


	2. The Boy Who Fell From the Sky 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who commented and left kudos on the first chapter! :D I wasn't expecting such a response from my silly little crossover fic but I definitely appreciate your support!
> 
> Second chapter! Let's jump right in.
> 
> Enjoy. (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

The walk to the principal’s office only served to further convince him that he was actually inside an incredibly fancy private school.

For one thing it was _huge_. The walk from Shuzenji-san’s office to the center of the main building took fully five minutes, during which time she led him down countless branching hallways and past more closed doors than he could count. At that time of night the corridors were completely empty and almost eerie despite the harsh fluorescent lighting. 

They walked in silence, him too nervous over what was to come to make conversation and she too deep in thought to take note of his discomfort. The only sounds in the deserted school came from his own footsteps and the intermediate tapping of the syringe-cane echoing off the walls.

In addition to it’s enormity, what little he’d seen of the school so far was not only ludicrously well-maintained for a school full of teenagers, but also ridiculously expensive looking.

The floors were made of actual tile, not linoleum, and they were spotless, polished to a high sheen. The white and navy blue stucco on the walls was pristine with none of the visible cracks or scratches that came with normal wear and tear. Astonishingly of all were the floor to ceiling windows that took up entire walls and were so clean he could see their reflections in them as they passed. It was too dark to see any of the grounds and there was no need for them to go outside, but he didn’t doubt the whole campus was just as neat, orderly, and extravagant as everything else he’d seen so far.

By the time they actually reached their destination he was shaking like a leaf with suppressed anxiety, terrified of whatever lay beyond the solid wooden door the nurse had led him to. He was sure in that moment he couldn’t have been any more nervous than if it had been another Mafia boss waiting on the other side.

Selfishly, childishly, he wished Reborn were there to yank his hair and tell him to get a grip, or that Gokudera and Yamamoto were there to flank him and back him up as they often did in such situations. Even Onii-san and Lambo, with their uncanny ability to break any kind of tension no matter how thick, would have been a welcome distraction at that point. It had been a long, long time since he’d last felt so alone. He’d forgotten how much he hated it.

Shuzenji paused with her hand on the knob and turned back to him. “About the Principal, he’s, ah...well, do try not to stare, alright dear?”

He blinked down at her, nonplussed. “Um, alright. I’ll try.”

She nodded, seemingly appeased. “You’re a polite young man. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

With a cursory knock, she swung open the door, calling out as she did so. “Principal Nezu, our mysterious guest is awake.”

“Ah, perfect timing!” A cheerful, high-pitched voice responded as they stepped into the room. “I was just about to call down there to check on his condition.”

There was a tall, plain-faced man in a tan trenchcoat standing before a large, dark wood desk, behind which sat a, uh…?

Only prolonged exposure to a particular brand of day-to-day insanity courtesy of Reborn kept his reaction to a slight widening of the eyes when he saw the mouse-bear-dog creature sitting behind the desk, paws folded neatly as it-no, he, _he_ watched him in return through keen, black button eyes. The principal was covered in glossy white fur and dressed in an immaculately tailored black suit with an ugly, jagged scar carved into the fur running over his right eye. Tsuna was instantly twice as intimidated as he had been mere seconds prior.

“So this is the infamous Sawada Tsunayoshi.” He indicated one of the plush leather chairs stationed in front of his desk. “Won’t you please sit down? And allow me to introduce Detective Tsukauchi from the Mustafu police force.”

He robotically shook hands with the detective, already much too stressed and yet simultaneously exhausted to be freshly terrified at the prospect of talking to the police.

Tsukauchi smiled encouragingly, no doubt in response to the glazed, shell-shocked look on the teen’s face. “Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take too long and then I’ll be out of your hair. I understand you’ve had a bit of a long day.”

The man courteously remained standing as Tsuna sank into one chair and Shuzenji hopped into the only other available chair in the room. The woman tapped her cane lightly on the floor to draw their attention. “If you could hold off on your questions for another moment young man, there’s something the two of you should know.”

As she began relaying everything he had told her since he’d woken up in her office, he found himself drifting off in spite of the lingering tension, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier until finally he let them slide shut. He had no idea how he could still be tired after all the sleep he’d gotten but he was. So very tired...

He’d only just dozed off for real when a hand landed on his shoulder, jolting him to immediate, shrieking wakefulness. “Hiiie! I’m studying Reborn, I’m studying! I just need to finish this one thing and then I’ll be-!”

He stopped, looking around in bleary confusion and blinking owlishly a few times to clear his vision. As soon as he realized what had happened he turned bright red with embarrassment. “Ah, sorry! Please excuse me! I didn’t mean to-I mean, I know this is very important, I’m sorry I-”

The nurse leaned over to pat his arm consolingly. “No need for apologies dear. I’ve told these boys all that you told me and now I believe the detective has a few more things he wishes to discuss with you.”

Tsukauchi crouched so he no longer loomed over the seated teen and withdrew a small notebook and pen from an inner pocket of his coat. “Recovery Girl has explained that you are not well acquainted with Quirks so before we begin I’m going to give you a rundown of how my Quirk operates, alright?”

At his cautious nod of assent, the man continued. “My Quirk is called ‘Lie Detection’ and it works pretty much exactly as it sounds. Just like an ordinary lie detector machine, I ask a person a series of questions; basic questions at first, to establish a baseline of truthfulness, then more complex questions about whatever crime they may or may not have committed-or, as in your case, how much they can recall about a certain event-and then proceed with the investigation based on my findings.”

Tsuna boggled at him, astonished and also more than a little skeptical. “You can tell if a person is lying just based on their _voice_? How does that even work? I thought normal lie detectors had to read your heartbeat or something.”

He nodded. “That is how standard lie detecting machines work yes, but my Quirk allows me to separate truth from lie based on a complex chemical response in an overdeveloped portion of the prefrontal cortex of my brain. It’s a bit hard to explain, but it is scientifically proven to work.”

One corner of his mouth ticked up in a wry grin. “Believe me, I had to go through all sorts of tests in order to prove my ability before they would let my results be admissible in court. I can’t really explain how it works without a thesaurus on hand, but it does work.”

The teen mulled it over. It all sounded too ridiculous to be true, but then who was he to talk? That was practically the motto of his life at this point. Eventually he nodded. “Okay. I guess that’s alright. Do I-do I need to do anything or…?”

The detective smiled. “Nope. Just answer the questions as honestly as you’re able.” He flipped to a specific page in his notebook. “Now: name?”

“Sawada Tsunayoshi.”

“Birthdate?”

“October fourteenth.”

“Blood type?”

“A.”

“Mother and father’s names, in that order please?”

“Nana and Iemitsu.”

“Place of birth?”

“Namimori, Japan. I don’t know the name of the hospital.”

Tsukauchi nodded and made a note on the page. “You mentioned two classmates to Recovery Girl, a Gokudera and a Yamamoto. Their given names please?”

He hesitated for a quarter of a second but decided to answer truthfully; it wouldn’t be hard to find that information in the school archives. “Hayato and Takeshi.”

He made another note. “Who is Reborn?”

He started at the unexpected question. “What?”

“A minute or so ago you mentioned someone by the name of ‘Reborn’. How do you know them?”

“He’s. He’s my tutor.”

The detective’s brow furrowed. “Tutor in what if I may ask?”

Tsuna fidgeted, ducking his head as he thought fast. He didn’t want to have to lie to any policeman and especially not to this one, but at the same time he didn’t think his knee-jerk answer (“He’s a crazy Mafia hitman who’s been cursed to look like a baby and has been making my life a living hell ever since we met.”) while truthful, would go over very well.

“I. I’m not the best student if we’re being honest…I’ve gotten better in the last two years, after my mom hired Reborn. There was a flier left in our mailbox.”

All true. Another note was made. “Big question time now: what is your Quirk?”

“I still don’t really know what a Quirk is? Shuzenji-san tried to explain it to me I think, and you told me about yours but that’s all I know. I’ve never heard of anything like that before today.”

Tsukauchi’s pen paused mid-sentence, his brows going up as he peered at the teen incredulously. “True. Forgive me Sawada, but I must admit that wasn’t what I was expecting.”

“It certainly is curious,” the principal piped up. “I can’t imagine how that could be possible, unless…”

The detective straightened with a grunt and the loud popping of knee joints. “My Quirk isn’t infallible, but as far as I can tell everything he just said he believes to be true. If his memory’s been tampered with…but that’s a rare Quirk, and the results aren’t usually this specific or localized.”

“Hm, yes, amnesia causing or memory altering Quirks are extremely rare, even more so than warping Quirks.” Nezu pulled idly at one of his whiskers, an unconscious habit that only showed itself when he was thinking very deeply about a problem. “We can’t rule out the possibility completely of course, but it does narrow the field quite a bit.”

Shuzenji sat forward. “Speaking of warping Quirks…”

“Ah yes.” Nezu straightened in his chair. “I spoke to Thirteen prior to the detective’s arrival. They haven’t learned anything new as of yet I’m afraid. Though, they were able to discern for certain that the massive release of energy caused when Sawada arrived here was definitely mechanical in nature and unrelated to a person’s Quirk.”

“A machine capable of transporting someone across hundreds of miles instantaneously?” Tsuakauchi sounded politely unconvinced. “Is there even such a thing in the world?”

“Well, not in this world, no.” A chill ran down Tsuna’s spine at the principal’s words and the unwanted memories they invoked. He lifted his head to find the small creature’s gaze intent on him. “Sawada, tell me, do you know what a ‘ _hero_ ’ is?”

“Um?” He recognized the word, but how was that related to what they’d been discussing? Was this a trick question? “You mean like-like heroes from comic books or in a more general sense?”

“Yes, something like that. Tell me, have you ever heard of a hero named All Might?”

He wracked his brain but the name didn’t ring any bells. Maybe it was from a series he’d never read? “No sir.”

He saw detective Tsukauchi twitch out of the corner of his eye but he didn’t dare look away from the principal’s assessing stare.

“I see. What about Endeavor? Have you ever heard of him? The Flame Hero?”

“No sir.”

“Crimson Riot? Kamui Woods? Mt. Lady? Are any of these names familiar to you?”

“No sir.”

He was starting to sweat and he was vaguely aware that both Tsukauchi and Shuzenji-san were outright staring at him by that point but he had no idea why. What did comic books and cartoons have to do with anything? Was this some kind of code?

“Well!” Nezu clapped his paws together with a disproportionately loud smack and the teen nearly shot through the roof. “There you have it!”

He looked back and forth between the three of them happily, seemingly oblivious to their shared bafflement.

Tsuna was just glad not to be the only one who was lost. Not only did he still not have any idea what was going on, he was beginning to think he actually had even less of a grasp on the situation now than when he had first woken up.

There was a long beat of awkward silence while everyone waited for the principal to elaborate. When it became increasingly clear he wasn’t going to do so without further prompting, Shuzenji sighed and spoke up. “What?”

“Pardon?”

“There we have what Nezu-san? You’re going to have to explain it a bit better than that.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I’ve never known you to be so reticent. Normally you’d be midway through one of your famous lectures by now.”

“Ah, yes, well it had come to my attention that no one really appreciated my ‘famous’ lectures as much as I liked to believe they did. I have therefore resolved to alter my behavior accordingly.” He took his time pouring himself a cup of tea from the waiting pot on his desk and stirring in his sugar. “Although I suppose I could expound on the subject if you really wanted me to.”

Tsukauchi had placed a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with what looked like suppressed laughter and even Shuzenji’s thin lips were twitching at the corners, although her voice was very grave when she replied, “Please do.”

Nezu shrugged demurely. “If you insist.”

Tsuna couldn’t help a small smile of his own, recognizing the farce for what it was. He was grateful for the lightened atmosphere, the tension that had been slowly pulling the muscles in his shoulders into painful knots dissipating minutely.

The principal replaced his teacup on its saucer. “Though I really did think it was obvious. The most logical conclusion as to why young Sawada here has not only never heard of Quirks but also never heard the names of some of the most well-known and influential heroes in Japan is because he came here from another world, an alternate world, one without all of those things.”

Horror lanced through him, evaporating his improved mood instantly as he whole body tensed anew with shock.

His head whipped around to face the principal. “W-What? What do you mean by that? How can I be in another world?” _Again?_

“Yes, do you have any proof of this Nezu-san?” Tsukauchi’s smile had fallen away and he was instead frowning seriously. “I’ll grant you that the gaps in Sawada’s memory are…unusual, even suspicious, but what led you to the conclusion that he’s from another world? Doesn’t that seem like a bit of an extreme conclusion to jump to?”

“As I said, it is the theory which I believe holds the most credibility.” As he spoke, Nezu was busy preparing a separate cup of tea. “Namimori is a small town detective but it isn’t built on the moon, and Sawada would have had to be living under a rock his entire life to never have heard of All Might, let alone about Quirks and all the rest.”

Teacup in hand, the creature pushed back his chair and jumped nimbly to the floor without spilling a drop. “Quirks as a global phenomenon have been around for very nearly a century, there’s absolutely no possible way this boy could have attended school anywhere in the world without having at least heard of them, even if he never developed one himself.”

Circling his desk, he stopped in front of Tsuna’s chair and offered him the cup. “Here, you look like you need this.”

He took it with a trembling hand and a murmur of thanks, steadying the cup with both hands so he could take a cautious sip. A little on the sweet side for his taste but he was grateful for it anyway. It gave him something else to focus on while he mind dissolved into a swirling chaos of white noise and fuzzy static.

 _Not again_ , a quiet voice whimpered from the depths of his mind, the same voice that always spoke up whenever he was facing a fight he knew could not be avoided. _I don’t want to do this again._

The principal was still speaking. “When you take a look at all the facts together I’m sure you’ll agree with me.”

“And what facts are those exactly?” That was Shuzenji, looking the epitome of skeptical behind her purple visor. “Spell it out for us.”

“One, the fact that Sawada had no prior knowledge of Quirks until he came to this school, something that should be impossible in this modern age, yet the good detective here has confirmed it be true beyond reasonable doubt. Two, the fact that his prints could not be found in any database in the country despite the rigorous laws in place that ensure every child over the age of three is registered, even if they turn out be Quirkless. Three, the method by which he arrived at U.A in the first place: a massive release of mechanical energy the likes of which none of the many, fine scientists on our staff have ever encountered before.”

He took the empty teacup from the teen and turned to the desk to refill it. “If it was a trap it would have sprung by now, if he was a plant it wouldn’t make any sense to be so ostentatious about his arrival, and on the off chance this is some kind of unnecessarily complicated long con, well, it’s a chance I am prepared to take.”

He handed the freshly refilled, steaming cup to Tsuna. “Now as I see it, either you’ve spent the last fifteen years of your life in some remote, incredibly insulated commune that actively suppresses knowledge of the outside world, which the very fact that you’re sitting here right now would ultimately disprove, or you’re from an alternate world entirely separate from our own where Quirks never developed in the first place.”

He leaned in a bit closer, beady eyes intent on Tsuna’s face. “Tell me Sawada, what do you know about ‘parallel worlds’?”

“Too much,” he blurted without thinking, then realized what he had just implied and immediately began to backpedal. “I mean! G-Gokudera-kun, my friend, he-he’s really into all that stuff! Like weird science and aliens and U.M.A! Things like that! I’m sure I’ve, uh, heard him mention it once or twice?”

He prayed that sounded believable enough to fool the detective’s Quirk. It was all technically true, except for the part where he implied he’d learned everything he knew about parallel worlds from Gokudera, which was a big fat lie. His friend _had_ chattered on about the theory behind it and about how fascinating the whole thing was for a while after they’d returned from the future for the last time but still, when it came right down to it Shoichi had been the one to first explain it all to him to the best of his ability.

It was hard to tell for sure since the principal’s face (snout?) seemed to be permanently affixed in an overall genial expression but Tsuna thought the creature appeared amused by his babbling. “So you are familiar with the concept?”

“Yes sir.”

“I have some idea of what you’re talking about,” Shuzenji spoke up was a frown. “But as far as I know the existence of parallel worlds has never been conclusively proven.”

“Not ‘proven’ no, but there is some interesting science behind it.” Nezu returned to his desk and climbed back up into his chair. “But we can discuss all that tomorrow; it’s getting late and I’m sure we would all like to be in our beds sooner rather than later. There’s just one more thing we need to talk about first. Sawada?”

He flinched and sat up straight. “Yes sir!”

“We will need to come up with a cover story to explain your presence here.”

“Cover…? I’m sorry sir, but why is that?”

“Well you might be potentially stuck here for quite a while if we can’t find an expedient way to send you home.” He folded his paws together neatly and smiled at the baffled teen. “This is a school after all, and I’m sure Recovery Girl would prefer having all her beds free for potentially injured students. So while you’re with us, I think it would be best to try and integrate you into the student body on a temporary basis so that you don’t fall behind. What kind of principal would I be if I let a fine young man like yourself languish in isolation when there’s the potential for an enriching academic experience all around us?”

“You- I’m sorry, let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “You want me to attend school here?”

Nezu shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“B-but,” he sputtered. “I don’t know anything about this world! You keep talking about Quirks and Heroes and things like that but I don’t have the faintest clue what you’re talking about! How can I blend in if I don’t know anything?! Plus there’s no way I could afford the tuition at a place this nice!”

The principal chuckled. “Despite appearances, we are government funded Sawada, so there’s no need to worry about that at least.”

“But he is right about his lack of knowledge,” Tsukauchi pointed out. “Trying to slide him into an open slot in a first year class as a transfer student or something won’t work. He’ll need coaching. A lot of it.”

“I’m not suggesting we throw him straight into the deep end and leave him to drown detective,” the principal’s tone was only mildly disapproving but the man still grinned sheepishly and ducked his head, abashed. “Of course we’ll take the rest of the week and the coming weekend to further Sawada’s understanding of this world to an acceptable level and to build a believable cover story as to why and how he came to be here. We’ll also need to think of how best to explain away his arriving here in such a noteworthy fashion.”

“But where will you put him?” The woman sounded like she had very serious doubts about this plan. “The general education classes are already teetering on the edge of overcapacity and the business and support courses are so specialized that-no offense dear-but I’m not sure how well he’d be able to keep up.”

He wasn’t offended. In fact, he was fervently thankful she’d brought it up so he didn’t have to humiliate himself further by broaching the topic of his own abysmal grades. Reborn and his spartan tutoring methods meant he no longer brought home zeroes on every quiz but that still didn’t mean he was a good student by any stretch of the imagination.

“It just so happens that we’ve recently had an opening in the first year Hero course, in Class 1-A. Mineta has decided to withdraw from the school and I think, for the time being, Sawada will be able to fill his vacated spot nicely.”

“But he doesn’t have a Quirk!”

Nezu waved away their concerns. “A minor detail. True, he won’t be able to participate to the fullest extent in the more the physical aspects of the Hero course, but there’s no reason he can’t attend the basic classes with them. He’ll simply have to attend study hall during the combat training and functional studies periods.”

“Now that that’s settled-” He turned back to the teen. “-I suggest you return to the infirmary with Recovery Girl and focus on getting a good night’s rest! You’re going to have quite a full event calendar for the next few days I’m afraid. Though I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t handle if you put your mind to it.”

Tsuna wasn’t anywhere near as sure of that as the principal seemed to be, but he knew a dismissal when he heard it. He nodded his acquiescence and struggled to his feet, swaying momentarily once he was upright. He could dimly recall Shuzenji saying something about having dinner once he returned to her office but honestly he was so tired he could feel the ache in his bones. He had no idea if he’d be able to stay awake long enough to eat more than a few bites of whatever was put in front of him.

A small hand pat his hip and he looked down in surprise to find Shuzenji frowning up at him worriedly. “Let’s get you back to bed young man. You look dead on your feet and I’m not too proud to admit I could do with a nap myself. It has been a very, very long day for the both of us.”

“Yes’m. Thank you for your time principal-san, Tsukauchi-san.”

“No trouble at all.”

“Get some rest young man.”

He yawned so wide he both felt and heard his jaw crack and shuffled obediently towards the door, the nurse at his side prepared to steady him if he stumbled.

Nezu’s voice stopped them just as they reached the door. “Oh and Sawada?”

Tsuna turned back to the small mouse-bear-dog creature “Yes sir?”

The principal’s permanent smile widened the barest amount. “Welcome to U.A.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of another slow chapter but at least the plot is being furthered. Next chapter should be more exciting; Aizawa and the 1-A kids will be making their grand entrance! :3
> 
> And before you ask, yes I did preemptively remove Mineta from the story. Unpopular opinion alert: his character doesn't actually bother me that much but I didn't wanna have to write him so. Out he goes. Also I totally made up Tsukauchi's Quirk cause there was no information for it on the wiki oops.
> 
> I'm trying to have Saturday be my update day which is why this second chapter came out so fast. Tentatively looking at an every other week update schedule but don't quote me on that. If any of y'all have read my other fics you already know I'm terrible at keeping to a schedule. ^^;
> 
> Hopefully I'll see y'all soon but as always y'all's comments and feedback keep me writing. Please let me know what you guys think of this chapter!
> 
> Until next time! (:


	3. The Boy Who Fell From the Sky 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What?! Another update so soon?!
> 
> Madness.
> 
> Enjoy. (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

True to all predictions, he was hardly able to keep his eyes open long enough to stumble his way back to the nurse’s office and he was out like a light the second his head hit the pillow, all thoughts of dinner forgotten.

Shuzenji woke him relatively early the next morning, but thankfully by that time his strange lethargy had vanished and he was ravenous. She appeared mollified by the voracious return of his appetite as he eagerly devoured every scrap of the breakfast on the tray she had placed in his lap.

After breakfast, he dutifully followed as she led him down to the principal’s office once again, using a different, slightly longer route this time in order to avoid the crowds of students on their way to class. Tsuna was grateful for the reprieve; fully rested and recovered, the seriousness of the situation he had found himself in was beginning to fully sink in and his head was spinning with questions he didn’t know how to answer.

What had happened to his friends yesterday? Were they okay? Had they been transported to this alternate world as well somehow? If so, where were they? Were they in danger? Was this some kind of Mafia thing after all?

Due to this distracted line of thinking, he was barely paying attention to his surroundings and was mostly moving his legs on autopilot while his mind whirled. He didn’t think he had the wherewithal to deal with being jostled, shoved, and stared at on top of all that, to be a stranger in a sea of unfamiliar faces.

As it was, he was holding on to control by the skin of his teeth, fighting the urge to turn and run screaming in the opposite direction as fast as he could, as far as he could. Hyper Intuition had nothing to do with it; he just really, really did not want to have to deal with whatever imminent danger was surely looming ominously on the horizon.

His whole body jolted and he squeaked in surprise when a small hand settled lightly on his arm. “Here we are dear.”

Head whipping up, he looked around wildly and saw that they were standing in front of the same door to the principal’s office he’d seen last night. He hadn’t even realized they’d stopped moving. Flushing slightly with embarrassment, he nodded in sheepish acknowledgment, ducking his head as her grin widened with amusement.

“This is as far as I go with you today. I have to get back to my office in case a student in need comes to call.”

He stared at her, nerves increasing at this news. “Y-You’re not coming with me?”

She shook her head. “No young man I really must get back.”

She pat his arm once more then gave him a firm push in the direction of the door. “It’ll be alright dear, you’ll see. Neither Nezu nor Eraserhead will bite. Now go on, don’t keep them waiting. I’ll see you in a few hours for a more thorough checkup.”

Staggering a bit from the force of her shove-she was much stronger than she looked!-he managed to catch himself before he faceplanted and turned to face her. “Um, yes! Thank you, for everything Shuzenji-san. I-I’ll see you later?”

She waved as she walked away. “Good luck young man. Try to stay calm and remember to breathe.”

He grimaced, chagrined at having been read so easily and forced himself to knock before he could psyche himself out further.

Entering when bid, he opened the door to find the small form of the principal seated behind his almost comically large desk and an unfamiliar man slouched against the wall opposite Nezu.

“Ah, Sawada! Right on time.” He gestured to the stranger with one paw. “May I introduce your new homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta.”

Aizawa-sensei was a tall man with long, shaggy black hair and deep bags under his bloodshot eyes. He also had a crescent shaped scar under his right eye and was wearing what looked like a black tracksuit of some kind, heavy black combat boots, and an oddly long beige scarf that coiled several times around his neck and shoulders. He also looked like he hadn’t slept in at least a week.

When he reached out to shake Aizawa’s hand, Tsuna’s Intuition stirred uneasily for the first time since he’d arrived in this world.

 _Potential danger_ , it whispered. _No immediate threat. Tread carefully_.

The fact that Aizawa was apparently a formidable fighter wasn’t as much of a shock as it could have been. From what little he’d been able to understand last night, U.A was a school where superheroes came to learn to be superheroes. It made sense their teachers would have to be made of pretty sturdy stuff in order to keep them in line.

That didn’t mean Tsuna wasn’t immediately cowed. He didn’t exactly have the best track record with teachers as it was, and he didn’t even want to contemplate what would happen if he ever failed a test in this one’s class! The very thought of it made him break out in a sweat and he let go of the man’s hand as quickly as he could, unable to meet his eyes.

“So you’re the new ‘transfer’ student.” Aizawa’s voice was deep, flat, and monotonous. He looked over at the principal. “This is going to take a while. Why do I have to be here for this? I do have a class to teach.”

“Oh there’s no need to worry about that Eraserhead,” Nezu responded cheerfully. “All Might graciously agreed to take over all your classes for today, so we have all the time in the world!”

The man’s brow twitched and although he didn’t actually scowl he somehow managed to articulate an overall feeling of intense displeasure. “Why didn’t you choose All Might to help with this instead? His annoying personality would actually be useful in a case like this. Even Present Mic would be a more logical choice. Why me?”

Nezu just smiled. “I wonder.”

Seemingly understanding that this was the best explanation he was going to get, Aizawa grunted in resignation and turned back to the small teen still standing before him. “Sawada, look at me.”

Tsuna, who had been pretending intense fascination with his sneakers up until that point, jumped and looked up on reflex only to freeze under the teacher’s dispassionately assessing stare. Aizawa did nothing more than stare at him for a long, drawn out moment, gaze flicking over the teen’s face, as if looking for something.

Something he didn’t find judging by his annoyed scoff. He addressed the principal without looking away. “And you’re sure the Gen Ed course is full?”

“To the brim!”

“And he absolutely has to join the school while he’s here?”

“Of course!”

“In my class, specifically?”

“Yep!”

“And I’m not allowed to expel him?”

“Nope!”

Aizawa sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, irritated. “Then sit down Sawada. We might as well get this over with.”

He scrambled to obey, not wanting to upset this particular teacher any more than he somehow already had. The plush chairs had been moved so that they faced each other and as soon as Tsuna was seated in one chair, Aizawa collapsed into the other.

“Alright,” the man began, no inflection whatsoever in his tone. “Principal Nezu has explained the situation to me as it stands. Before you can join my class you’ll have to learn the basic ground rules and general operations of the Quirk-oriented society in which we live. Explaining every minute detail will take too long and personally, I am not interested in getting that involved, so we’re just going to build the rudimentary framework and have you fill in the rest as you go along.”

“Best case scenario, you don’t ever get the chance to use this knowledge because either we figure out a way to send you back to wherever you came from in the next five days, or whatever event occurred that sent you here in the first place reverses somehow and you just disappear back to wherever you belong.” 

He massaged his brows. “Either way you will no longer be my problem.”

“But while you are here,” Nezu chimed in. “No matter how long or short that amount of time may be, it is imperative that you attempt to blend in as much is possible. Under no circumstance should you mention parallel worlds or even imply that you came from a world that is not our own. Best case, no one believes you and you run the risk of being ostracized as an attention-seeking liar. Worst case, someone does take you seriously and this information somehow leaks out. I cannot stress enough how much that cannot be allowed to happen.”

“The media is already in a feeding frenzy thanks to that light-show that happened over the campus when you appeared here,” Aizawa put in.

“We’ve managed to convince them it was nothing more than a minor mishap with a student’s Quirk that was quickly contained and dealt with, but to be perfectly frank with you Sawada, the public is losing faith in us.” The mouse-bear-dog folded his paws together solemnly. “We cannot allow them to know about any of this. The slightest whisper of this story could be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back. It could spell the end of this school.”

Tsuna could feel himself gradually paling as the two of them spoke. He’d had no idea the situation would be so dire. The last time this had happened to him, they’d also kept their arrival a secret as much as possible, but the circumstances between then and now were vastly different. For one thing, he hadn’t been expected to assimilate with a group of complete strangers.

“I-I don’t know,” he spoke up and barely resisted the urge to flinch when they both turned towards him. 

“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. I mean, I’m willing to try! I’ll try my hardest, but…maybe it would be better if I just stayed with Shuzenji-san? I could. I could try and do the assignments on my own maybe, or-or just hide out somewhere until this…whatever it is fixes itself? I mean, is there really any reason to go to all this trouble? I don’t want to cause any problems…”

“Nonsense, Sawada,” the principal leaned over his desk and pat the teen on the shoulder. “No one is expecting you to sit in a broom closet and stare at the wall until this is all over. We’ll manage. We know you didn’t ask for this any more than we did.”

“Supposedly,” the man grumbled.

“You’re not any trouble and I don’t mean to frighten you or make it sound like we resent having you here. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the stakes at hand, so you could be more prepared to deal with them going forward. None of this is your fault young man and we won’t treat you like it is.”

His shoulders relaxed marginally and he smiled shakily at the small creature, touched by his words. “Thank you, sir.”

Resolve solidifying, he faced Aizawa once more and bowed to him as best he could while remaining seated. “I promise to work as hard as I have to in order to ensure my presence here doesn’t cause you any problems.” _I’ll do it with my Dying Will!_ “Please take good care of me in the meantime.”

The teacher’s brows actually rose in surprise at the earnestness of the teen’s words. _Maybe there is the slightest glimmer of potential after all_. He nodded in acknowledgment. “I expect nothing less.”

He directed his next statement to Nezu. “The hardest part in regards to the students will be convincing them of the logic of letting a kid with no Quirk join the Hero course.”

“Yes I had considered that particular road bump as well. A cover story will be necessary of course, and it needn’t be entirely watertight as long as it sounds believable enough, but justifying letting a Quirkless student join a Hero class, even on a temporary basis, will take some finagling.”

“Eighty percent of the humans born into this world are born with some form of ‘Quirk’, or extraordinary ability, outside of what you might consider ‘normal’ for a human being,” the principal explained to Tsuna, noting the teen’s confusion. “Detective Tsukauchi’s you’ve heard of, but Recovery Girl can also heal wounds with a kiss and Eraserhead here can erase other people’s Quirks just by looking at them.”

Tsuna’s eyes grew very round. “Wow.” His brows furrowed. “Can I ask what your Quirk is, sir?”

Nezu laughed. “While it is very rare for an animal like me to develop a Quirk, it is not impossible. In my case, my Quirk gives me enhanced intelligence that is superior to most humans.”

“Oh. Neat…so why did you decide to become a principal?”

The creature smiled, showing teeth in a way that made his Intuition twitch unhappily. “Spite.”

“H-Huh?”

“Spite. It can be a very powerful motivator if used correctly.”

“Oh….uh, okay?”

Deciding to let the matter drop, he switched tracts back to the subject at hand. “In that case, wouldn’t it just be easier to tell people I do have a Quirk?”

Aizawa shook his head. “It’s a lot harder than you might think to fake a Quirk. Children in this world start developing their Quirks at four or five years old; by the time they reach your age they can use their Quirks as easily as they breathe. It would be nearly impossible for you, with no prior experience, to fake having a Quirk.”

He fidgeted as the beginnings of an ill-advised idea started to churn to life in the back of his mind. “Even if it was a simple one?”

Nezu cocked his head to one side. “Did you having something already in mind?”

“Well…” He gnawed anxiously on his lower lip and stared down at the floor, at war with himself. It might make things easier, but it was also a risk. But if it would help to alleviate suspicion…

“There’s this-this, uh, kinda superstition, in my father’s family? That-That some people in our family can-or rather, are more likely than other people to, avoid danger I guess? It’s called Hyper Intuition, and it can like. Warn me if there’s a threat nearby or tell me if I’m about to be attacked so I can, uh. Dodge it?”

He peered up nervously through his fringe and immediately began to flail when he saw the man frowning at him. “It’s not a Quirk! Obviously! Because my world doesn’t have those, but, um, like, could-could it be considered a Quirk? Maybe?”

Aizawa and Nezu exchanged a glance.

“Augmented survival Quirks are pretty common,” the principal began slowly. “They’re not big or flashy and they can’t usually be demonstrated on command but they are very common, a fact which could be helpful in this instance. A bit tame for a Hero course student but less strange than if you were Quirkless.”

Aizawa still looked unconvinced. “You’re saying this is just a trait passed down in your father’s family that allows you to sense danger? Can you provide an example?”

Tsuna flushed scarlet and averted his eyes again, picking absently at a loose thread in the hem of his slacks. He knew what he needed to say, it was just hard for him to say it.

He steeled himself against his own embarrassment. “I uh…I- I get-well, I used to get bullied? A lot? In middle school. And I was mostly able to avoid confrontation by um. Knowing when I needed to take a different route home or, not eat lunch in the same place I usually ate lunch cause I just knew people who wanted to hurt me would be there waiting? I can also tell when someone is following me or, sometimes, when I meet someone new I can tell if they’re a direct threat to me or not.”

“A direct threat?”

He shrugged without raising his eyes from the floor. “More like if they’re just generally dangerous or not. Whether they have the skill or training necessary to cause damage to me if they wanted to. Or the intent to do so.”

There was silence in the office for a long, long moment, and then a muffled thump as the principal hopped down from his chair. The teen refused to look up, head bowed and shoulders slumped miserably, too mortified by all that he’d revealed to face these relative strangers in that moment.

A soft, warm weight settled lightly on his knee and he flinched away on pure instinct, his head shooting up to find the principal standing before him, a subdued look on the small creature’s usually cheerful features.

“Sawada, I want you to know in advance that that kind of behavior is _not_ tolerated here,” Nezu told him seriously, his high-pitched voice unusually somber. “U.A has a strict no-tolerance policy for bullying. This is a school for heroes; any student who cannot be bothered to act like a hero in every aspect during their time here is not worthy of the title. Please do not hesitate to come forward if you feel even the least bit threatened, physically or otherwise.”

Tsuna just stared at him, stunned speechless. He could tell the principal was utterly sincere and meant every word, he just couldn’t figure out _why_. None of his previous teachers had ever cared who was bullying who-although, to be fair, no one openly bullied anyone on school grounds unless they wanted to get bitten to death-and it wasn’t until after Gokudera and Yamamoto had started shadowing him everywhere that his tormentors had finally given up. For the most part.

Even then he had still run the risk of being accosted on his way to or from school on days when Gokudera had errands to run and the baseball and boxing teams both had practice before and after class. Gokudera in particular had fretted something fierce about leaving him alone on such days but Tsuna had been adamant that they not rearrange their schedules just for him. He could handle it.

And he had. He’d had to take a few winding back roads to and from school a few times, and more than a once he’d had to make a run for it when his Intuition warned him he was being followed too close for comfort, but he’d handled it. He had been fine. Really.

At least that’s what he’d thought until Hibari-san had gotten fed up with him being late to school every day (fed up with watching him jump at loud noises and cringe at shadows) and taken it upon himself to start escorting Tsuna home on days the others couldn’t. 

They had been very, very tense walks indeed what with Hibari refusing to acknowledge his existence and he being much, much too terrified of offending the older boy to risk opening his mouth, but they had gotten the job done. The bullies had given up for good after that.

He was still teased mercilessly of course, for his bad grades, small stature, and wimpy nature, but never within earshot of his friends and, thankfully, never again with the addition of physical violence. All in all, the teen felt his first semester of high school had gone amazingly well, considering. Until now, that is.

Yanking himself forcefully out of his preoccupied reminiscing, he made himself nod stiffly in response to the principal’s words. “I understand, sir. Thank you.”

Nezu smiled with what looked very much like either sympathy or empathy and pat his knee once before withdrawing. “All I ask is that you keep it in mind. Now!”

He clapped his paws together and turned to Aizawa. “I think it’s about time we got started, don’t you?”

The man sighed but sat forward from his loose-limbed sprawl in the chair in order to rest his elbows on his knees.

“I’m only going to say this once Sawada, so pay attention. This plan will not work without your complete cooperation and your total dedication to learn everything I’m going to attempt to teach you in the next few days. Are you prepared to work harder than you probably ever have in your life in order for this to work? If not there’s no use in trying at all.”

Tsuna nodded firmly. “Yes Aizawa-sensei.” _I’ll just pretend Reborn’s got a Leon-gun to my head and is telling me to study as if my life depends on it. That should do it._ “I promise to try my hardest.”

His new teacher smiled and the teen shuddered automatically. It was not a nice smile.

“Good. Let’s begin.”

-

That had been Wednesday, but on Monday morning, as he stood at the front of the classroom with nineteen curious pairs of eyes trained on him, Tsuna couldn’t help but think he’d made a terrible mistake.

He’d grown up in Namimori all his life, and Namimori was not a large town. He’d entered high school with the same group of kids he’d gone to kindergarten with, and he’d never been introduced to a new class before. It was understandably nerve-wracking and he knew he must look like a deer in headlights; he just hoped the other students couldn’t see him shaking from this distance.

“This is Sawada Tsunayoshi,” Aizawa intoned from his desk, sounding as entirely disinterested as always.

“As I told you yesterday, he will be joining our class on a temporary basis, but since he is not studying to become a Hero, he will attend only the basic classes with you and have study hall during the practical training courses. He will also be joining you in the dorms at Heights Alliance. If you have any questions, save them until after class. Yaoyorozu, stand up.”

A tall, pretty girl with her dark hair in a ponytail on the back row obediently stood. “Sir!”

The man turned to Tsuna. “Your desk is beside Yayorozu’s. Take a seat and we’ll get started.”

The teen nodded rapidly and bowed, not trusting himself to speak, and hurried to sit down. He managed to make it to his desk without further incident, but before he could slump down and rest his head on his desk in relief the girl seated in front of him promptly twisted around to face him.

She was cute, with a pretty, round face and big brown eyes. She was also currently smiling at him, much to his confusion.

“Sawada-kun! I’m so glad to see you’re alright!” Her voice was as bright and bubbly as her appearance would suggest.

“I’m Uraraka Ochaco!” She motioned to the green-haired boy seated to Tsuna’s left. “This is Midoriya Izuku. We were so worried about you after what happened.”

He blinked at her, uncomprehending, until it clicked.

His eyes widened. “Oh! Uraraka-san, you and Midoriya-san-” he turned to look at the other boy. “You’re the ones who saved me! I had wanted to thank you, but Shuzen-uh, Recovery Girl told me I should-I should wait until I joined the class. So, um.” 

He bowed as low as he could without slamming his face into the desk. “Thank you very much!”

Midoriya began to flail and stutter in a way that was oddly familiar. “N-No, no! We were glad to do it, I mean, after all it is our job, or rather, it will one day be our job. W-we’re just glad to see you unhurt! And also that we-that we got to you in time, before-well…before anything bad could happen.”

Uraraka nodded vigorously. “Mm! We came to check on you in the infirmary afterwards, but Recovery Girl said you were still resting.”

“Psst! Hey!” The loud whisper came from a boy with violently red hair sitting a few seats in front of Midoriya. “Sawada, you’re the kid who fell out of the sky last week, right?”

Tsuna’s cheeks pinked at the recognition but he nodded cautiously, causing the red-headed teen to grin widely in response, exposing a mouthful of sharp teeth. 

“That was so cool! Glad you’re feelin’ better, man. Hey, listen, what’s your Quirk? Maybe we can-”

“Oi!”

The whole class-the majority of whom had been diligently pretending they weren’t eavesdropping shamelessly on their conversation-jumped half out of their seats in surprise and looked up at their teacher guiltily.

Aizawa appeared deeply unamused. “I said questions could wait until after class. Now all of you face forward and pay attention. At least pretend you’re here to learn something.”

The red-haired boy grinned sheepishly as he did as he was told and Uraraka hurriedly turned back around, hiding her pink cheeks from view in her open textbook, while Tsuna and Midoriya both ducked their heads, abashed.

 _That wasn’t too bad_ , he thought to himself as he pulled out a fresh notebook, and then went digging through his bag for a pencil. _That could definitely have gone worse. Although the day is young; I could still screw this all up somehow_.

He paused in his search and frowned at his own defeatist line of thinking. That wasn’t going to solve anything. He had to try and stay as positive as he could. After all, the last five days hadn’t been a torment or anything, and so far it seemed that at least some of his classmates were friendly. It was already going much better than he had feared it would.

Still, he couldn’t silence the nagging feeling in his gut that kept insisting he should be out doing something, looking for his friends, looking for a way home, anything. He couldn’t shake the feeling that going to school, going about his life as normally as possible, was the exact opposite of what he should be doing in that moment.

But the truth was, there was nothing much else he could do. For once, this wasn’t a problem that could be solved with gloves and Flames. People much older and smarter than him were already working to find a way to get him home and he had to trust, no matter how much it made his stomach clench with worry, that wherever his friends were they would be able to look after themselves. They were all so much stronger than him; surely they would be okay.

For the time being there was nothing else he could do but sit and wait for something else to happen. So that’s what he would do.

He would wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: I totally fucked up the seating arrangement for the 1-A class on accident but I only noticed when I was halfway through writing the last scene and at that point I was just like 'fuck it' so yeah. Everybody gets new seats! I promise it doesn't matter to the plot at all, I just though I'd address it in case anyone cares.
> 
> Anyway! I was gonna try and wait to post this chapter until Saturday but well. It's done and I'm impatient so here ya go! I hope you liked it. (: Not much 1-A this time, but there's a little interaction for ya. Next chapter will pick up on that a bit. And All Might might?? Be showing up next chapter. Maybe. I hope.
> 
> Please let me know what you guys thought about this chapter! I cannot tell y'all enough that comments from you guys are what keep me writing. Without you guys I would not be writing fic.
> 
> So yeah right now I'm gonna try and keep my update schedule to every other week; might be Saturday, might be earlier than that. Depends on how fast the chapter gets written. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this pace.
> 
> Until next time! :D


	4. Settling In 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. A new chapter exactly two weeks later?
> 
> Who even am I??
> 
> Enjoy. (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

Tsuna had absolutely no idea what Aizawa was talking about but he somehow found himself fascinated anyway.

Since he had no prior experience with Hero law, his first class was filled with frantic note taking as he pretty much copied down everything the teacher said, verbatim, not wanting to miss any details, no matter how small. He even copied down the questions asked by other students and Aizawa’s answers to those as well.

Thrown into a world so similar yet different from his own, the concept of Hero law was mind-boggling enough even without taking into account just how many laws had been adjusted, nullified, or created anew in order to keep up with the evolution of Quirks as they had developed over the last eighty or so years.

By the end of the class his mind was spinning with questions and his writing hand was cramping but at least he hadn’t gotten bored or nodded off. He had a feeling Aizawa would not take kindly to students sleeping in his class.

He was gingerly stretching out his hand when the bell rang and there was the expected flurry of activity as everyone gathered up their things to depart for the next class.

He hurried to pack his own things so that he could follow them, not wanting to get lost. Aizawa and the principal had given him a brief tour on Wednesday and then a more in-depth one on Sunday in order to refresh his memory but as he had already noted, the school was enormous and he was not confident in his ability to find his way to his next period (English) without help.

Preoccupied as he was with stuffing his borrowed textbook into his bag, he didn’t notice a small crowd had gathered around his desk until someone cleared their throat in order to get his attention.

His head whipped up and he stared in startled trepidation at the group of people arranged around his desk. He recognized Uraraka and Midoriya, as well as the red-haired boy from earlier, but the other three were unknown to him.

One was a very tall square-jawed boy who looked old enough to be senior, as well as another, shorter boy with a black lightning bolt zig-zagging through his blonde hair, and the last was a girl with-he tried very hard not to stare and mostly succeeded-curly pink hair, black eyes, and bright pink skin. She also appeared to have horns.

Aizawa had explained to him about both heteromorphic Quirks and what he had called ‘secondary non-active heteromorphic Quirk characteristics’. The term had made Tsuna’s head spin which was the only reason he remembered it.

What it meant was that while some people had heteromorphic Quirks which gave them both an altered appearance and an abnormal ability, such as prehensile tails, extra arms, wings, etc., some people were also born with heteromorphic traits that had been passed down through their families, but their actual Quirk was something else entirely.

So the teen knew that even though the red-head had jagged sharks’ teeth and the girl had pink skin and horns, that didn’t necessarily mean those were their only Quirks. They were most likely just secondary physical traits.

He desperately wanted to ask them all what their Quirks were, but he refrained. For some reason, it just seemed rude; like randomly asking a complete stranger their shoe size or asking an older woman her age.

He was in the middle of trying to think of something to say when the red-head spoke up.

“Hey Sawada, sorry about earlier.” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I knew I shoulda waited until after class but I got carried away, you know?”

“We’re sorry too!” Uraraka blurted while Midoriya nodded rapidly in agreement at her side. “We didn’t mean to get you in trouble with Aizawa-sensei on your very first day!”

“But that was so cool!” the pink girl burst out. “That whole falling out of the sky thing you did? It was awesome! How did you do that? Was that your Quirk?”

“Yeah cause if so that’s wicked!” That was the blonde. “There was this incredible, like, explosion of light in the sky and everything. Is it like a warp-gate Quirk? Does that rainbow light thing happen every time you use it?”

“Everyone please give Sawada some space,” the tall boy insisted, gesturing stiffly towards the door to the hallway. “Remember what Aizawa-sensei told us. Furthermore, we all need to leave now if we’re to get to our next class in a timely manner. Let us gather our things and speak as we walk.”

There were some good-natured grumblings of ‘killjoy’ and ‘such a stickler’ as most of the group peeled off to return to their desks and grab their bags while the tall boy went to wait at the door for them, leaving behind only Uraraka and Midoriya.

Midoriya smiled timidly at him. “Sorry about all that. We, uh, we don’t get a lot of new students here, and after what happened, well…I guess we’re all just really curious.”

“We don’t mean to overwhelm you though,” Uraraka told him seriously. “If you need us to back off just let us know. Aizawa-sensei specifically told us not to badger you too much with questions your first day.”

“No! Um, I-I mean, I don’t mind,” Tsuna said honestly. “I just, uh, I wasn’t expecting so many people to care, I guess.”

He hadn’t expected this at all. His plan had been to keep his head down and go through his school days like a ghost, not speaking to anyone and doing his best to just blend in with the background until he found a way to return home. It had seemed like the safest option at time, but he hadn’t counted on his temporary classmates actually wanting to be friends with him; such a thing was totally unprecedented in his life up until this point.

“Would you like to walk with us?” Uraraka asked hopefully. “U.A is pretty big and it can be hard to get used to without help. We could show you the shortest routes to all the classes, and we could all eat lunch together maybe?”

Tsuna found himself smiling in spite of himself as he stood from his chair, pleased by her offer. “Sure! That’d be great actually, if you don’t mind. I got the tour a few days ago but it’s all still pretty confusing.”

Midoriya’s grin widened and steadied with what looked like relief as they made their way to the front of the room. “Don’t worry! You’ll get used to it in no time.”

“Yeah!” the girl cheered as she practically skipped along beside them. “Just stick with us Sawada-kun! We’ll make sure you stay on the right path.”

Tsuna really hadn’t been expecting to make friends while he was stuck here, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want any, just that he didn’t really know how to make them. Gokudera and Yamamoto had decided to become his friends all by themselves (with some machinations from Reborn), and after that it had all just kind of snowballed without any input from him until suddenly it seemed he had more friends and acquaintances than he knew what to do with.

And it wasn’t like he minded, definitely not, it was just that he still wasn’t one hundred percent certain what he’d done to deserve so many amazing people in his life. Whatever it was he surely hadn’t done enough of it.

But maybe here was his chance to make friends all on his own. He had to admit it would be nice to have someone to talk to and each lunch with for however long he’d be staying in this world. Maybe this wouldn’t end up being such a bad thing after all.

-

Tsuna peeked cautiously around the doorframe. The first half of the school day had passed in a blur and he’d just gotten done having lunch with some of his new classmates in the insanely huge school cafeteria. Since the second half of the day for Hero students was strictly practical classes, he would be spending the rest of his class time in study hall.

He had actually been looking forward to study hall as a way to gather his thoughts and recover from what felt like a mountain of new information that had been dumped into his brain in the last few hours.

He _had_ been looking forward to it, until Aizawa had pointed him towards this room with the parting words:

“Stay in there for the rest of the day; your study hall teacher will show you to the dorms after the final bell. Take this time to start working on some of your assignments and read ahead in your textbooks if you can. And don’t worry about Midnight; she’s mostly harmless. Just try to keep your eyes on your work.”

That had sounded vaguely ominous in a way he was not entirely comfortable with which was why he was currently loitering on the threshold of the room without stepping in. He was giving serious thought to just making a break for it when a feminine voice suddenly called out.

“Well don’t just stand there! Come in, come in!”

He jumped slightly in surprise and took an involuntary step forward into the room.

“Ah, there you are! You must be the new transfer student, Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun, right?”

The classroom itself was typical, with rows of desks all lined up with military precision and facing the front of the room. At the front of the room there was a large teacher’s desk, a blackboard, a podium, and a woman. The woman herself, however, was not typical at all.

She was tall, with long black hair that gleamed blue in the overhead lights, and she was dressed in a way that made the poor teen’s brain short-circuit and his face flame. There was nothing strictly inappropriate about her attire in the sense that nothing was showing that shouldn’t be; in fact, her entire body was covered from neck to wrists to ankles, and yet somehow still managed to be suggestive despite that.

He’d learned enough in the past few days to know that this was probably her ‘Hero costume’ but he couldn’t help but wonder, rather hysterically, what her Quirk could possibly be for her to dress like that. 

The woman-Aizawa had said her name was Midnight-was still smiling at him, apparently undeterred by his gape-mouthed staring. But then she was probably used to it. Provocatively dressed or not she was clearly one of those people who could look beautiful even while wearing a potato sack.

She waved her hand in a dismissive motion. “There’s no need to look so scared. Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” Her grin abruptly sharpened and turned predatory. “Hard~”

Tsuna let out a breathless squeak of fright and the woman, no doubt sensing weakness, swooped in for the kill. Wrapping a companionable arm around his shoulders-how had she gotten over to him so fast?!-she began leading him towards the front of the room.

“Really, Sawada-kun, there’s no need to worry. I’m just teasing you! Here,” she deposited his unresisting form in an empty seat near her desk. “Sit down and get started on your homework. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Fair warning though, I’m terrible at algebra so I’m afraid you’re on your own in that department.”

“I shouldn’t need to, but if at any point I have to leave the room to go assist with another class, I want you to just stay here and work quietly until I get back. If I have to be gone for more than an hour I’ll have another teacher look in on you. Sound good?”

He nodded weakly as he began to unload the contents of his bag, not trusting himself to open his mouth and not say something terribly embarrassing. She winked at him mischievously, sending his heartbeat, which had only just begun to slow down, skyrocketing once again.

“You seem like a good kid Sawada-kun, so just do everything I say and we won’t have any problems, okay?”

He made another pathetic trodden-on mouse noise in response and she laughed, ruffling his hair affectionately as she made her way back to her desk.

“Yep, I think we’re gonna get along great.”

Crimson to the roots of his hair, he hid his glowing face behind his hastily opened Hero Ethics textbook and just prayed the time would pass quickly. 

-

The hours, surprisingly enough, did indeed pass quickly, and before he knew it Midnight was leading him outside towards his new dorm. ‘Heights Alliance’, the principal had called it, and like everything he’d seen of the campus so far, the building certainly lived up to its grandiose name.

Honestly, Tsuna was at the point where he was just too mentally exhausted to be amazed yet again by the apparently endless resources the school administrators had access to. The day had been long and while most of his classmates had been friendly and accommodating they had also been incredibly chatty and a little too much for him to deal with all at once.

He just wasn’t used to so much positive energy being directed his way by relative strangers and while he had at least managed to remember most of the names of the people he’d been introduced to (Midoriya, Uraraka, Kirishima, Iida, Kaminari, Ashido…) he hadn’t really been able to absorb any other pertinent information about his new classmates beyond the fact that they all appeared to be a much more close-knit group than any class he’d ever been in before. Perhaps living in the dorms had something to do with that.

The teen had just enough wherewithal left to nod along in automatic response to whatever it was Midnight was chattering to him about as she gestured around the shared living space-

(“Kitchen there, couches and TV there, and the boys dorms are on the third floor; you’re in room 319, Sawada-kun. And that’s pretty much all you need to know other than curfew is at nine and the girl’s dorms on the second floor are strictly off limits after lights out.”)

-and bow at the waist in gratitude when she waved goodbye with a cheerful “See you tomorrow, same time, same place!” as she departed.

No sooner had the door closed behind her then did he begin to trudge toward the elevator on pure autopilot. His tired mind had successfully grasped that his room was on the third floor, room 319, but that was about it. All he cared about in the moment was getting to his room and maybe seeing if he could catch a few hours of sleep before tackling the rest of his homework that he hadn’t been able to finish in study hall.

His sleeping schedule had been erratic for the last week, although he had no idea why. After that first night, he hadn’t slept very well on the cot in Shuzenji’s office, often startling awake multiple times, heart racing and every muscle tense as he strained his senses to try and figure out what had woken him, but try as he might, he could never find anything out of the ordinary.

He wasn’t sure if it was Hyper Intuition or just hyper-vigilance, but whatever it was, it hadn’t let him get more than three solid hours of sleep a night for a few days now and he knew it was starting to show. He’d been too keyed up and nervous about his first day of class in this world to remember to be tired earlier, but it was definitely hitting him full force now.

Hopefully sleeping in a proper bed would allow him to fall asleep quicker and rest deep enough that he could recover some of his depleted mental and physical faculties. He had a sinking feeling he was going to need his wits about him more than ever in the coming days, when the knowledge Aizawa and Nezu had crammed into his brain would finally, really be put to the test.

He entered his room, closed the door, locked it, dropped his bag in the middle of the floor, and collapsed face first onto the bed with a sigh of pure relief. He could instantly tell that this bed was, as expected, much more comfortable than the one in the infirmary and already his eyelids were beginning to droop. He really should set an alarm or something to make sure he didn’t sleep too long but in that moment the idea of getting back up in order to look for a clock just felt like too much effort, especially when it would be so much easier to just…close his eyes and…slip away for a little while…

_He was cold._

_And he was alone, utterly alone and that was very, very wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. Something was missing, some **one** was missing, multiple someones._

_He was cold, inside and out, lacking something-someone-someones and no matter how much he stretched-strained-reached-searched he couldn’t find a way to reattach the bonds left severed and hollow in his chest. Cold. Much too cold. Something **wrong**._

_Danger!_

_Can’t breathe through the panic-panic-panic, can’t find them-danger-can’t reach them-danger-why couldn’t he reach them-danger!-where were they-danger!-they were gone, how could they just be **gone** -DANGER!_

_Rapid-rabbit-rabid heartbeat-beat-beating against the cage of his ribs, something wrong?, someone wrong?, someones hurt?, someones gone?, can’t be gone, he won’t allow it, he swore he’d protect them with his last breath but they’re gone and his chest is empty and his breath is gone-gone-gone, can’t breathe, can’t fight, can’t find them, have to find them, can’t help them, have to help them-_

_Gone!_

_Cold!_

_Alone-alone-alone-alone!_

_** NO! ** _

Flame _surged_ through his veins and his ring erupted with fire, transforming into his gloves in the next breath as Sky Flame crackled to life on his forehead. He was already on his feet, steely orange eyes scanning the room for the threat that had triggered his Intuition, stance low and wide, fists clenched at the ready. Braced to attack or defend as necessary.

But there was nothing. No one in the room other than him, no threat, and no visible danger.

Tsuna maintained his position for a long, long moment, scanning his surroundings with his senses as well as his Intuition, pushing them out as far as he could, but still he couldn’t find anything in range that might register as dangerous to his unconscious mind.

Slowly, cautiously, he dispelled his Flames and stumbled gracelessly backwards onto the bed when his legs gave out. Gasping, he clutched at the fabric covering his heart, shuddering as his Flames continued to blaze and flicker and sputter inside him, distressed and directionless, before they finally subsided and flickered out.

He sat there, panting and trembling, his head tucked between his knees as his stomach clenched and twisted with nausea until eventually that faded as well.

What in the hell had all _that_ been about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *stares at this chapter*
> 
> Huh.
> 
> Well.
> 
> Didn't see that coming.
> 
> Honestly y'all I have no idea where the last scene of this chapter came from but I'm happy with it so?? Into the fic it goes. I swear it does serve a purpose. What purpose? Well. You'll just have to keep reading to find out won't you? (;
> 
> As always y'all's comments keep me going and once more I'd like to thank everyone who's read/commented/kudos-ed/bookmarked this fic. You guys are the reason I write.
> 
> Until next time. (:


	5. Settling In 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made it in under the wire!
> 
> Another character gets introduced to the story in this chapter! :D Hope I did them justice.
> 
> Enjoy. (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin
> 
> Edit 09/10/17: Went back through and edited a few things; hopefully the chapter flows a bit better now.

Other students started to arrive back to the dorms not long after that. Tsuna could hear them moving around and talking in the hall outside but he didn’t budge from his spot huddled on his bed with his back to the corner of the room farthest from the door. There was a pillow clutched tight to his chest that he didn’t remember grabbing but he curled himself tighter around it regardless, grateful for the meager comfort in provided as his thoughts tumbled over each other and his heart continued to slam against his ribcage.

He didn’t leave his room for the rest of the night, though he did get up briefly to answer the door when Uraraka knocked to tell him dinner was ready. He told her he wasn’t feeling well and politely waved away her questions of whether he needed any medicine or if Recovery Girl needed to be called. He was touched by her concern but told her he was probably just tired, and not to worry, and yes if he felt worse in the morning he would definitely go to the nurses’ office, and ‘thank you Uraraka-san’.

After she left, he forced himself to slog through the remainder of his English and algebra homework, knowing deep down he’d done even worse than usual on it, and dragged himself into bed at a quarter to eight, where he promptly fell into a deep and mercifully dreamless sleep.

As a consequence of going to bed so early without dinner, he was wide awake and ravenous about an hour before his alarm was set to go off the following morning. Feeling simultaneously somehow better and worse for all the sleep he’d gotten, he staggered out of bed and into his clothes-it took him two tries to get his pants on the right way-then crept down the hallway towards the elevator, careful to move as quietly as possible since there were no signs that anyone other than him was up at this hour.

He made it down to the first floor without incident and wandered his way into the kitchen without paying much attention to his surroundings, mind still foggy with sleep. The lights were already on-maybe they were on a timer or something?-as he headed across the large open area to the massive cabinets, hoping to find a bowl and some cereal for his breakfast, both preferably on a low shelf.

“Ah, there you are young man!”

Tsuna was so surprised by the unexpected voice coming from behind him that later he would swear his feet actually left the ground as he jumped and yelped at the same time he tried to whirl around and mostly only succeeded in tangling himself into a knot. He stumbled unsteadily backwards and barely managed to grab onto the marble countertop in time to prevent himself from hitting the floor. He stared, flabbergasted, at the man he hadn’t even noticed sitting at the long wooden table that took up a good portion of the room. 

_I must have walked right past him. Reborn would be pissed_. He winced internally and fervently thanked any deity that might be listening that his tutor hadn’t been there to witness him missing something so obvious.

Meanwhile the man had half-risen from his chair and was staring, wide-eyed and clearly startled, back at the teen. “Are you alright my boy?”

“Yes!” he blurted on pure reflex as he scrambled back to his feet. “Uh, I’m fine! I’m great, you just-I didn’t see-It’s my fault really cause I-”

Finally succeeding in righting himself and no longer preoccupied by the task, he was able to get a better look at the man and what he saw made his eyebrows fly up and his mouth drop half-open in horrified shock. He took a step forward. “Um, are _you_ alright sir?”

Because he didn’t look alright. Not at all.

The man had a shock of wild blonde hair with long drooping bangs and piercingly blue eyes set deep in their sockets, heavily shadowed under a prominent brow. He was also gaunt to the point of emaciation, every angle of his face stark and overly defined, skin over bone. Hollow cheeks and a razor sharp jaw without an ounce of fat to soften his features at all made his age impossible to determine. 

The suit he was wearing didn’t help the overall picture, considering it looked to be at least ten sizes too big for him and Tsuna’s heart clenched with immediate, overwhelming sympathy. The man appeared so frightfully sick it actually hurt to look at him.

The stranger blinked, uncomprehending, and glanced down. “Hm? Oh, yes, not to worry my boy.” 

He smiled and raised his left arm, which was just as bony and skeletal as the rest of him, and-judging from what little of it was visible-seemed to be completely wrapped in bandages. “It’s healing just fine now, thanks to Chiyo.”

He lowered his arm and patted his narrow chest lightly as he sank back into his chair. “I’m sorry I scared you so, I thought perhaps you had already seen me.”

“Um, no sir.” The teen edged a little closer to the table, in case the skeleton-man required assistance of some kind. He really was incredibly frail looking. “I was just, uh, distracted? Yeah. Wanted to get some breakfast. I, uh, I didn’t eat last night.”

“Yes, young Uraraka told me you weren’t feeling well.”

The man peered at him assessingly, his heavy brow and sunken eyes giving the expression a foreboding cast to it that Tsuna was (almost) certain he didn’t intend. “How are you feeling this morning young man? I’m under strict orders from Chiyo to return you to her office if you start feeling the least bit sickly. She expressed some concern to the principal about possible immune-system differences between your world and ours’.”

“Yeah, uh, she expressed that concern to me too.” He rubbed absently at his upper arm where Shuzenji had administered what felt like a million different preventative injections, muttering to herself all the while, until she was satisfied with his ability to fight off any infection this world might try to throw at him. It had taken days for the bruise to fade.

The man caught the motion and smiled again, recognizing it for what it was. “Ah, I see she got ahold of you too, eh? Ah, well. It’s just her way of showing she cares.”

He smiled back automatically, without even really meaning to. Something about the man’s smile, oddly sharp though it was, made the teen want to return it. “I suppose so. Um, I’m sorry sir, do-have we met, or?”

The stranger jumped slightly. “Oh! No, please pardon my rudeness. I had forgotten we haven’t officially met; Aizawa and Nezu have been updating me on the situation.”

He held out one large, bony hand. “My Hero name is All Might, but you may call me Yagi, if you prefer, now that I’m retired.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar to the teen, but he couldn’t quite place it. One of the famous pro-heroes Nezu had mentioned that first night maybe? He couldn’t remember; Tsuna had never been very good with names, he was better with faces. 

Shrugging off the feeling, he obediently reached out and shook the proffered hand. “Sawada Tsunayoshi. Nice to meet you...” He hesitated, unsure. “Yagi-san? Or is it Yagi-sensei?”

Yagi let out a harsh bark of a laugh as he released Tsuna’s hand and turned back to the table. “It’s entirely up to you young man.” 

He began gathering up the multitude of papers spread out surprisingly neatly across the surface of the table, busily stacking them or sliding them into various folders as he spoke. “I teach one of the practical Hero courses, so you aren’t required to take my class while you’re with us. Therefore, I am not technically your teacher. Yagi-san is fine, or All Might, although I admit I’ve grown quite a bit more used to responding to my hero name then my given one. Suppose I’ll have to break myself of the habit sometime soon.” 

Task done, he gathered the sheaves of papers and folders into his arms and stood, straightening fully for the first time and Tsuna couldn’t help the quiet squeak of astonishment he let out or the way he took a jerky step back. The man was a giant! The teen was well used to being the shortest male in any room but Yagi positively towered over him, despite the man’s slumped, exhausted posture.

 _He’s even taller than Lancia-san!_ His brain gibbered hysterically, eyes wide as he stared up and up and up. _Much, much taller!_

He probably would have been far more intimidated than he was in that moment if it weren’t for the fact that his Hyper Intuition was utterly silent. Not so much as a twitch of warning or even the same whisper of danger from when he’d first met Aizawa. Yagi posed absolutely no threat to him at all, and it was that fact alone that allowed him to lock his trembling knees in place and resist the automatic urge to flee the room immediately. 

Tsuna gulped and steeled himself. The man had been nothing but soft-spoken and polite so far and it wouldn’t do to be rude. Besides, his mother had raised him better than that. “D-do you need any help, sir?” 

Yagi’s brows rose in apparent confusion. “Hm?”

He gestured weakly. “With-with you papers, sir? Do you need any help? That looks like a lot to carry by yourself, and your arm is injured, so...” 

Yagi beamed, obviously pleased. “Very polite of you young Sawada! But there’s no need; I’m just moving to the living room so the students can eat breakfast in peace. I can make it there on my own, but I do appreciate the offer my boy.”

Tsuna blinked. “Oh. Okay. As long as you’re sure sir.” 

He stepped to one side to allow the man to pass and just stood there for a long moment after Yagi had left the kitchen, considering. That had gone surprisingly well for a first-time conversation with a total stranger; he’d barely stuttered or cowered at all, despite the man’s alarming appearance. How strange...

He shook himself out of his daze and continued on his quest for a bowl of cereal, deciding to put it out of his mind. But deep down some part of him still wondered what exactly it said about his life up to this point that having a perfectly normal interaction with an adult authority figure would throw him for such a loop.

-

As the week progressed, his life finally started to settle back into the familiar routine of school-homework-sleep that had dominated the better part of his life from the ages of five to thirteen, when an infant hitman had first appeared at his front door and gleefully turned his entire world upside down. 

Over the following few days he got to know his new classmates better than he’d first expected to during his time in this world. By Friday he could put names to faces almost instantly and he-mostly-no longer stuttered or hesitated when he was suddenly addressed without warning. He could talk to the other students well enough, and he’d even managed to make quite a few of them laugh-on purpose!-during their lunches in the cafeteria. 

All in all he thought things were going pretty well, and he had actually started to relax a bit, though the constant worry over his friends and family and how he was going to get back to them never really dissipated entirely. How could it?

But then Friday came, the day they got their algebra tests back. And Tsuna, predictably, had failed miserably.

He was actually a little surprised and more than a little disappointed in himself. He’d actually studied for once, and though he never expected to get an ‘A’ or anything like that, he was hopeful he’d at least passed this time. But no. His grade was just as terrible as always, the paper covered in red ink and various crossings out. At least their teacher had passed back their papers face down and hadn’t called him out in front of the rest of the class.

The bell rang for dismissal and he miserably stuffed the test paper deep into the depths of his bag and seriously considered staying after to speak with his teacher about extra tutoring. He didn’t want to do extra work, of course he didn’t, couldn’t think of anything he wanted to do less, but maybe he should give it a try anyway. Things couldn’t continue on like this, he’d never graduate at this rate, in this world or his own, and he knew he’d never truly improve without intense remedial help.

Though Reborn had helped improve his grades using his own insane, Spartan, mafia-inspired methods, without the hitman there to regularly knock him upside the head or force him to study at gunpoint, it was just so much harder for Tsuna to focus on any one thing for any significant length of time. Especially if it was on a subject he found as difficult and frustrating as math.

Gokudera, bless him, had already tried countless times to help him study, to no avail and, on more than one occasion, had even happily offered to do all of Tsuna’s homework himself. But as of yet he had never taken his friend up on it, and probably never would. It would be easier and some small, ugly part of him desperately wanted to accept the help even if it was cheating, but he couldn’t do it. Apparently, even someone as no-good as himself had more pride than that. Or maybe just more stupidity.

 _Really, you think I’d be used to this by now._ He sighed as he stood and slung his bag over one shoulder. _I really should stay behind and talk to the teacher, but I don’t want to waste her time. Maybe I should came back later-_

“Hey Sawada!”

He jumped, but already he recognized the boisterous voice of Kirishima and already his tensed muscles were easing as he turned to the redhead, a small smile pulling at the corners of his mouth in spite of his low spirits. Kirishima reminded him of Onii-san in a lot of ways, with their loud voices, exuberant personalities, and instance on the virtues of all things ‘manly’. He had a feeling if the two were ever to meet, they’d get along like a house on fire.

“Ah, hi, Kirishima-san-er, I mean, Kirishima.”

The other boy grinned wide and happy, glad that Tsuna had (sorta) remembered to leave off the formal honorfic like he’d asked. “Hey! So, listen, before we head to lunch, I wanted to ask you: how’d you do on the test?”

Tsuna froze, the blood in his veins turning to ice at the question. “Uh...”

“Cause I did terrible!” He continued cheerfully, without a hint of shame. “Totally flunked, though at least I did better than Kaminari-” (“Hey!”) “-and it looks like Jirou and Ashido didn’t do too well either. We were thinkin’ of having a study group tonight, and we were wondering if you wanted to join.”

“Uh.” Tsuna hitched his bag up higher on his shoulder, stalling. “What makes you think I did badly?”

“Well you looked kinda upset when you saw your paper so I figured-” Kirishima’s eyes widened as he realized the implication and he quickly backtracked. “Not that I just assumed you failed! I just meant, cause you said you were nervous about the test before, and you looked disappointed-but if you did well that’s good! That’s great! Maybe you could give us some pointers inst-”

“No, no it’s okay.” Tsuna couldn’t help but grin. Tact wasn’t exactly Onii-san’s strong suit either. “I understand. I-I failed too.”

Kirishima returned his smile with obvious relief that he hadn’t accidentally caused grievous offense. “Cool! So, back to what I said before, would you wanna join our study group? We’re all hopeless by ourselves, but we can usually convince Yaoyorozu to help us pretty easily, and she’s top of the class! Are you in?”

The teen appreciated both his candor and the offer, but…

His fingers tightened around the strap of his bag. He spoke hesitantly, “Um, no I-I would like too but...I did, uh. I did really, really bad, and I usually do even worse so maybe, uh. I probably won’t be able to contribute much at all.”

“That’s okay!” The redhead made as if to sling his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders but stopped when Tsuna flinched reflexively. His brows furrowed briefly and his smile slipped, but he hurriedly tugged it back into place without too much effort and settled for lightly squeezing the brunette’s shoulder instead, then letting his hand fall away. “We’d be happy to have you anyway!”

He gently nudged Tsuna in the direction of the others and continued to chatter as they walked. “We get some snacks from the kitchen and Yaoyorozu makes tea and sometimes Jirou’ll bring her music player, it’s a lot of fun, and it really does help to study with others, I think. And don’t worry about your test grades too much, standardized testing is stupid and there’s no way you did worse than Kaminari-” (“ _Hey!_ ”) “-so you’ll probably be fine. We can all improve together, ya know?”

Swept up in Kirishima’s wake, Tsuna had quickly learned the easiest thing to do was just allow himself to be pulled along with it. It wasn’t like it was much of a hardship; he liked Kirishima already, and he’d spoken with Kaminari and Ashido a few times, Jirou a little less than that, but they’d seemed nice enough from what he could tell. Yaoyorozu was the tall, dark-haired girl who sat next to him in homeroom and honestly she still intimidated Tsuna a great deal but. If she was used to leading study groups, then maybe she would be understanding of his many academic faults.

Tsuna found himself relaxing even further despite himself as his classmates talked, bickered, and laughed all around him, content to just listen for the moment without interjecting anything himself. He still hadn’t been sleeping very well, though so far there hadn’t been any more nightmares like the one from Monday afternoon.

Absently, he lifted one hand to rub at his breastbone, specifically the area over his heart, and frowned.

He still didn’t know what he was going to do or how he was going to get home, and the thought gnawed at him every waking moment. But the truth was, as unsettled as he felt, he really was enjoying himself in this world, with these people. He couldn’t shake the cold, hard knot of feeling that tightened in his chest whenever he dwelt for too long on how much he liked it here, in this world where he was as free as a high school student could be, where no one demanded the impossible of him, or looked to him for guidance. 

In those moments, the cold feeling in his chest felt uncomfortably like betrayal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me tell y'all straight up: I love All Might. He's almost certainly my favorite bnha character so I hope I kept him in-character here. 
> 
> So! Little bit slow moving but uh...next chapter or possibly the one after that is gonna ramp it up considerably, so be ready for that. (: 
> 
> I wanna thank everyone who's read/commented/bookmarked/kudos-ed so far; y'all are awesome and I honestly still can't believe how many people seem to be enjoying this story. Never expected such enthusiasm for my silly crossover fic, but I'm glad y'all seem to be liking it so far!
> 
> Also, I hope this chapter helps clear up the timeline? I know quite a few of you had some questions about where this is in the bnha timeline, so I hope it makes a little more sense now. If not: it's set right after kamino ward and the Bakugo retrieval arc. Sorry for any confusion!
> 
> Please let me know how/if you liked the chapter and I hope to see you again in two weeks!
> 
> Until next time! :D


	6. Settling In 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *stares*
> 
> Uh.
> 
> So. I know it's only been a week but. This chapter was finished much faster than I expected so...
> 
> Enjoy? (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

Sawada Tsunayoshi was a bit of an enigma to the class of 1-A.

They had been informed by Aizawa-sensei on the Friday before his arrival that they would be getting an addition to their class in the form of a ‘temporary’ transfer student, who would also be staying in the dorms with them for as long as he was enrolled at the school. This news, of course, set off a flurry of questions from the students which, of course, Aizawa being Aizawa had point blank refused to answer.

Before dismissing them for the day, he had further warned them against bombarding their new classmate with their questions, at least until he had had some time settle in.

Fantastical rumors and wild speculation had run rampant throughout Heights Alliance that weekend. Speculation about the new student themselves, where they were from, how long they would be at U.A, why they were transferring so late in the year, what their Quirk might be, etc. The rumors ran the gamut from far-fetched but reasonable, to completely over-the-top outrageous.

One particularly popular and outlandish rumor, possibly started by Sero, insisted that Sawada was actually the child of an important government official who was in hiding after a failed kidnapping attempt by the yakuza.

By Monday morning the majority of the class was on the edge of their seats, ready to vibrate out of their skins with the anticipation of meeting the new student and putting all the rumors to rest. But whatever it was they might have mentally prepared themselves for, it was hard to reconcile those preconceived notions with the reality of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

He was small. Short and slight with wide brown eyes and an abundance of fluffy brown hair, he looked exceedingly nervous to be standing alone in front of the class with all their eyes on him, shifting his weight back and forth slightly and gnawing on his bottom lip. Basically, he was the most unassuming person any of them had ever seen. More so than Midoriya, even.

He continued to be unassuming for the rest of that first day, and pretty much all the days that followed after, but at least by Wednesday he had managed to lose the glazed, overwhelmed look he’d walked in wearing on Monday.

Thankfully, he did start to come out his shell the tiniest bit as the week progressed. He was able to look people in the eye when he spoke to them, he no longer flinched when directly addressed, and he had even managed a tenuous smile or two during lunchtime conversation.

Sawada had naturally gravitated toward the trio of Midoriya, Uraraka, and Iida, which was understandable given his similarities to the green-haired teen. Both of them were naturally skittish and slightly jumpier than the median average and since Uraraka and Iida were already well used to those traits by virtue of having befriended Midoriya, it made sense Sawada would feel more at ease with them.

Not to say the rest of the class didn’t try to wriggle their way into his sphere however and whenever they could; most of them were still dying of curiosity nearly a week after meeting him, and pretty much everyone in 1-A wanted to know more about the mysterious ‘temporary’ transfer student. Except for Bakugou, who for some reason avoided him like he carried the plague.

But the truth was, no one had really made any headway when it came to getting Sawada to willingly open up about himself until Friday night after everyone had returned to the dorms.

What had started out as a small study group had quickly morphed into a dorm-wide study session. As it turned out, no one but Yaoyorozu and Iida had done very well on the latest algebra test. Midoriya and Bakugou had only barely managed to scrape by with a ‘C’ each.

Sawada had seemed hesitant to join in once it became obvious the entire class was getting involved but some careful cajoling from both Kirishima and Uraraka had been enough to convince him in the end. More than one person in the room did a mental fist-pump once he finally relented and took a seat on on of the couches. Kirishima and Uraraka quickly exchanged a sneaky high-five behind his back.

The first few hours were indeed devoted almost entirely to studying, with scattered conversations on other topics here and there, but by nine o’clock the group had devolved into less of a study session and more into a sleepover. Pencils and notebooks were set aside in favor of bowls of popcorn and cans of soda, and the talk moved onto more entertaining topics such as movies, hobbies, their future Hero careers, and other typical high school student related topics.

Since it wasn’t a school night and there was no lights out curfew on weekends, All Might and Aizawa left them to it, only interjecting every once in a while with a reminder to keep the noise to a dull roar, which they mostly managed to heed; twenty teenagers in one room are going to make quite a bit of noise, no matter how conscientious they are.

Eventually, somehow, they got on the tract of Quirks and how they were all doing in their practical combat classes, how they had all improved since the beginning of the year, what they still need to work on, and various things of that nature.

Uraraka was in the middle of excitedly telling Tsuyu about how she had managed to keep a three ton block in the air for almost fifteen minutes before she’d been forced to drop it or risk vomiting when Sawada, who until then had been sitting quietly in between the girl and Midoriya, suddenly perked up.

“Your Quirk affects gravity, Uraraka-san?”

She turned and blinked at him, surprised. It was the first time she could remember him asking her a direct personal question. 

Recovering quickly, she nodded. “Yep! I can make things float and keep them in the air for a period of time and release them at will by doing this-” she touched her fingertips together to demonstrate. “-but I have a weight limit. Anything over three tons and I usually throw up.”

Sawada looked awed, his brown eyes very big. “That’s amazing! Just like Enma-kun.”

She blinked at him again and paused for a moment, choosing her words with extreme care. It hadn’t escaped her notice that the people sitting nearest to their couch had begun to eavesdrop shamelessly and she couldn’t really blame them. In the five days Sawada had been attending their school he had never once willingly volunteered any information about himself. The fact that he was doing so now was a good sign, but she didn’t want to act too excited and possibly make him retreat back inside his shell. 

She met Deku’s eyes over the top of Sawada’s head and he gave her an encouraging nod.

She took a deep breath and modulated her tone to sound merely interested instead of unbearably eager as she asked, “Who’s Enma, Sawada-kun? A friend from your other school?”

He nodded, obviously not yet having picked up on the fact that over half the class had gone suspiciously silent in order to better hear his answer. “Mm. Kozato Enma. He transferred to Namimori about a year ago, him and a few others. He can use his fl-um, his Quirk to affect gravity too. I’m pretty sure he can only make things heavier though.”

The girl was delighted, and she allowed some of it to show on her face as she smiled brightly. “Really? Gravity-based Quirks are really rare! I’ve never met anyone else who has one.”

His hesitant smile slipped and he began to look worried for some reason she couldn’t understand. “O-oh? I uh. I didn’t know that.”

“Oh, well, that’s okay!” She was quick to reassure him, not wanting him to back off now that they were finally making progress. Privately, she wondered what had spooked him. “I wish I could meet him. We could exchange tips! I can’t increase the gravity of things with my Quirk, only decrease it. It would be fun to spar against someone with the exact opposite of my own abilities!”

His wobbly grin widened and steadied a little, probably at her obviously genuine enthusiasm. She cheered internally. 

“Enma-kun is a good fighter. Now that I think about it, I don’t think he’s ever met anyone else with a gravity-based ability either, so he probably would take the chance to spar with you if he could.” His expression abruptly darkened and his mouth tugged down at the corners. “But he can’t. Because he’s not here.”

Uraraka frowned, not liking the way his previously light-hearted words had become tinged with sadness. She was trying to think of a delicate way to ask him if he was okay when Aoyama suddenly spoke up.

“So what is your Quirk then Sawada?”

Those nearest to him whipped around to glare at the blond, both for the tactless question as well as his bad timing, and Ashido leaned over to punch him none-too-gently in the arm. The boy just sniffed and stuck his nose in the air even as he rubbed at his-now probably bruised-bicep. 

“What? We all want to know, and I didn’t see any of _you_ asking.”

Sawada stared at him, clearly startled out whatever funk he’d been sliding into, which was a plus. “My Quirk? Oh, uh. It’s nothing special.”

“But what is it?” Ojiro asked, flicking his tail curiously, deciding to abandon subtlety altogether now that the question was already out in the open. “What does it do?”

“It’s called Hyper Intuition. It’s a-it’s a, um, an _augmented survival_ type Quirk?” He said the words slowly, like he was testing out how they felt in his mouth. “That’s uh, why I’m not in the Hero course, since my Quirk can’t really help anyone but me.”

“‘Augmented survival’?” Bakugou snorted. “What the hell kinda bullshit is that?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Quirk like that either, _ribbit_.”

 _I have_ , Koda signed and Jirou translated. _They’re pretty common. My dad has one. They’re not usually very flashy._

“What does it do precisely Sawada-kun?” Midoriya’s fingers twitched towards his notebooks. “What do you mean when you say it can’t help anyone but you?”

He looked from person to person a little wildly as they spoke, not having expected such interest. “It’s a-it’s just that my Quirk, um, it l-let’s me know when dangers’ nearby? Sorta? It’s kinda like an early warning system. If I’m ever in a situation where there’s a direct threat to my well-being, it can, uh, let me know ahead of time? Even if I don’t see the threat, if the threat is there, I’ll know about it. So I can know to avoid it.”

Midoriya’s notebook was now open on his lap and he was writing feverishly. “Interesting! Kind of like the American comic-book Hero, Spider-man.”

“Yeah.” Sawada visibly relaxed at the comparison, glad for the chance to better explain. “It’s a little like spidey-sense in a way. There was this one time I was waiting for-uh, for a friend to get out of baseball practice and a foul ball almost hit me in the back of the head. I couldn’t see the ball but I knew something was coming, so I was able to duck in time.”

Kirishima’s mouth dropped open. “Wow! That’s gotta come in pretty handy.”

Sawada nodded. “It does. But only if I’m the one in danger; it can’t be used on anyone else, unfortunately. I inherited it from my dad’s side of the family.”

“Still, even with the limitations, your Quirk could easily be a great benefit if used for Hero work.” Midoriya gnawed on his pencil’s eraser without taking his eyes off the page and began muttering under his breath.

“It would definitely be a significant advantage in a physical fight, assuming you could sense your opponent’s attacks coming. If you were primarily a first-responder it would be even better, since you would be able to tell if further danger was present in an area that had already been attacked. I bet you would be good at bomb disposal too, or firefighting, or a more militarized position might work, depending on how well you can hone your Quirk to respond in certain situations...”

Sawada gaped at the other teen, flabbergasted, and Uraraka sighed with fond exasperation. She leaned around both boys to give Iida, who was seated on the floor next to Deku, a significant look. Iida nodded back in mutual understanding and lightly nudged their friend. 

“Midoriya, please, do desist. You’re alarming Sawada.”

Midoriya jumped, shaken out of his reverie and hurriedly looked up, abashed. “Ah! Sorry Sawada-san. I uh, I just get carried away sometimes and-but that’s not an excuse, really, and I am sorry if I caused you discomfort, or made you feel uncomfortable, or if-”

“It’s okay!” Sawada was quick to interrupt this time, possibly sensing a pattern forming. “I understand. And uh, it’s okay. Even if I could use my Quirk for Hero work I wouldn’t. I’ve never wanted to be a hero.”

Every single one of them drew back in shock. None of them had ever heard such a thing before.

“You don’t want to be a Hero Sawada-san?” Yaoyorozu spoke up, confusion clear in the furrow of her brow. Everyone she knew had wanted to be a Hero at some point or another in their lives, especially when they were very young; it was the most desired job in the world. “May I ask why?”

“Oh, uh. I just never thought it would be something I was good at.” He shrugged and glanced away, embarrassed. “I’m not brave or courageous or particularly hard-working. I hate fighting and getting hurt and I’ve never wanted to be responsible for another person’s life. I just. Don’t think I’d make a very good hero.”

“ _Tch_!”

Sawada flinched at the disgusted noise Bakugou made as he abruptly stood and stalked out of the room. They could all hear him stomp down the hallway and then a pause before the ding of the elevator signaled that he’d left the downstairs area entirely. 

There was a beat of awkward silence after his departure and Sawada’s expression began to crumple and pinch in a way that broadcasted his fervent desire to be absolutely anywhere else on Earth in that moment.

Kirishima shifted indecisively, torn. He’d gotten to his feet as soon as his friend had left the room, intending to go after him, but. He glanced back at their newest classmate, at the shame written all over his rapidly reddening face, and made a decision.

He plunked himself down in front of Sawada and met the other boy’s eyes seriously when the brunette looked up in surprise. “Don’t mind Bakugou, Sawada. He can be kind of a jerk sometimes, and he’s got a bad temper. If you don’t wanna be a Hero, then you don’t have to be. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Y-Yeah!” Hagakure piped up for the first time. “We’re not saying you have to be a Hero in order to be a good person. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do something different with your life.”

“Of course not!” Iida stated firmly.

“Yeah, I mean, if everyone wanted to be a Hero, there’d be way too much competition, ya know? And there wouldn’t any one left to do things like, like, uh, like! Inventing...microwavable burritos!”

Jirou scoffed and elbowed Kaminari, who winced. “Nice save Einstein.”

“It’s okay.” Sawada bowed his head, avoiding their concerned attention. “I know it’s cowardly of me to say. My mom...I think she understands that all I’ve ever wanted was an average life but. I know it disappoints my dad that I’m not. More proactive, or driven, or interested in a-in a...in the family legacy.”

“Preposterous-” Iida began but cut himself off when Todoroki, who up until that moment had remained silent, abruptly turned to face Sawada.

“Sometimes our parents convince themselves that they alone know what is best for us,” Todoroki said, steady and unflinching, his expression schooled into blankness. “They push us to follow a certain path because it’s what _they_ want, and never stop to consider that maybe it’s not what their children want, or they don’t care. Sometimes parents are wrong.”

Then it seemed like everyone was talking at once, raising their voices and clamoring to be heard over each other as they rushed to agree with Todoroki and tried to add their own encouragement. It was a well-intentioned cacophony. 

Sawada was starting to get that glazed, overwhelmed look again, but this time, Uraraka wasn’t sure if that was exactly a bad thing. He looked like someone who was hearing something they’d desperately needed to hear for years for the very first time. Like a malnourished plant beginning to bloom in a fresh spring rain. 

Like Deku used to look whenever she or Iida said something nice to him in the first few weeks of their friendship. A heart-breaking combination of cautious hope, reflexive denial, and unadulterated joy.

Something fierce and protective bristled in her chest at the thought and she made a promise to herself right then and there. The same secret promise she’d made to herself regarding Deku. 

For as long as Sawada was with them, however long that may or may not be, she swore that no matter what she would always do her very best to make sure he never had a reason to doubt his own self-worth ever again. It would be hard, but she was sure that with enough time and effort it was far from impossible. And never let it be said that Uraraka Ochaco had ever backed down from a challenge. She was a U.A Hero course student and she could do this!

_Plus Ultra!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I tried something a little different with this chapter! For some reason, I couldn't seem to write it any other way. Plus I think it's nice to change up the POV every once in a while. (: There'll prolly be a couple more chapters like this sprinkled throughout the story, but they'll be spaced pretty far apart from each other, no worries.
> 
> So! As always, thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed so far, you guys are my sun and stars and I literally would not be writing fic without you. Since I'm kinda going out on a limb with this chapter in particular I would love to know what you guys think of this narrative style and just the content in general.
> 
> Hope to see y'all again soon!
> 
> Until next time! (:


	7. Unexpected 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Long time no see. Sorry for the sudden hiatus; my brain was kinda fried, writing-wise. Had a bit of a block to work through.
> 
> But thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Thanks for sticking with me while I struggled to write this chapter. Y'all's nice reviews helped so much. :D
> 
> This chapter turned out a little short (which is weird cause I thought it was actually longer than usual oops) but it's very action-packed! So hopefully that makes up for it.
> 
> Enjoy. (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin

By the time the gathering broke up around one in the morning, Ochaco had managed to coax a few more precious tidbits of information out of their new classmate. Tidbits such as the fact that Sawada had never been to Mustafu before he’d begun attending U.A. That alone had been enough to give her an idea on how to proceed with stage one of her new plan.

She made sure to wake up extra early the next morning in order to put her scheme into action. When Sawada came downstairs she had already managed to beg, cajole, argue, and outright threaten almost everyone in the dorms into going along with it, as well as secured permission from All Might. She had covered just about every base she could think of, determined to make this work.

As Sawada wandered past where she sat on his way to the fridge, she exchanged a look with Kirishima, who nodded back once. Everyone was in position; they were ready.

“Good morning, Sawada-kun!” she chirped with entirely genuine cheer, delighted at the tentative smile she received in return. Progress!

She busied herself with her breakfast until the boy had had the chance to pour himself a bowl of cereal and sit down at the table across from her. She then made a show of looking up with a start, eyes wide as if something had just suddenly occurred to her. “Ah! Sawada-kun! I totally forgot to ask last night, but do you have any plans for this afternoon?”

He paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth and blinked at her, surprised. “Uh, not that I know of? I have a little homework left to do, but other than that...”

On cue, Kirishima, who just so happened to be sitting to Sawada’s right, looked over and grinned. “Hey! Ya know, if you don’t have anything else to do, you could come out with us.” 

He sounded eager at the prospect. Too eager. Ochaco tried to shoot him a surreptitious warning glance which the red-head either didn’t catch or cheerfully ignored. “We were planning a class trip to the outdoor mall downtown; you should come with!”

“Oh, um.” Sawada glanced around the room. “Is, uh, is everybody going?”

Jirou ‘chose’ that precise moment to glance up from her phone. “I am. I need to replace a CD that _somebody_ -” she elbowed an appropriately contrite looking Ashido in the side. “-lost in the depths of their filthy room. There’s no way I’m getting it back otherwise.”

Deku ducked his head and appeared chagrined. “I need to pick up a few more notebooks. I noticed yesterday that all of mine are full.”

“No surprises there,” Ochaco teased lightly, grinning when Deku blushed and silently thankful that Iida remained studiously silent on her other side, just as she’d asked. He was a terrible liar when the stakes weren’t high enough to really warrant it and she didn’t want him to give the game away. 

For this, in her humble opinion, was the truly genius part of her plan. 

Tsuyu was the next to speak up, citing a cracked lens in her goggles that needed replacing. Then it was Kaminari’s turn, lamenting the dorm’s lack of microwavable pizzas. Then Yaoyarozu, mentioning the new specialty tea shop that had just opened downtown that she’d been wanting to check out. Then Sero, then Shouji, and so on and so forth. Even Bakugou, whom she hadn’t even bothered to talk to, scowled mightily but finally snarled his acceptance when Kirishima nudged him.

It wasn’t that Ochaco wanted her new friend to feel pressured to agree, far from it in fact! It was just that she’d had a feeling he would be more willing to participate in a big group activity than something one-on-one or in a small group where he might feel like he was intruding. Her only fear was that he might assume they’d only asked him to join them out of obligation, rather than a real desire to hang out with him. But if he agreed, she was more than ready and willing to spend the whole day proving that wasn’t the case at all.

And while she had been fairly sure he would accept, there was always the very real chance that he might get spooked and say no. So when Sawada cautiously nodded and agreed to go with them, it was all she could do not to immediately jump up and cheer.

-

Despite his initial misgivings, Tsuna was actually having fun.

He’d originally accepted only because it had seemed rude to refuse-though logically he knew the invitation had only been extended out of pity-but he had surprised himself by how much he’d enjoyed getting out of the dorms for the day to see a bit more of the city. He hadn’t realized how disoriented he’d been at the prospect of living in a place he’d never really _seen_ until now; the chance to explore and commit a few important landmarks to memory was a pleasant one. 

And to their credit, so far none of his new classmates had treated showing him around as if it were some sort of unwelcome chore they must endure for the sake of politeness. On the contrary, Uraraka and Kirishima had taken turns all day towing him here and there to see some popular sight or another, chattering excitedly all the while and giving every sign of authentically enjoying his company. Which was strange and confusing but also kind of amazing in it’s own way.

They’d been at it for hours and although he was having a good time, Tsuna was secretly more than a little relieved at the prospect of stopping for lunch around noon, a prospect which was unanimously decided on without any input from him at all, which was good. If it had been up to him he probably never would have spoken up, eventually collapsing from exhaustion and having to be carried back to the school.

Though the students of 1-A had started their outing together and stayed together for over an hour, eventually everyone had splintered off into smaller groups and wandered off to see to their own interests. 

Tsuna was currently walking with one such splinter group which consisted of himself, Uraraka, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, and Tsuyu, the latter of whom had taken a particular shine to the brunette, apparently in part because of the similarity in their given names. 

The girl had spent the better portion of the day attempting to get the boy to call her ‘Tsu-chan’, calling him ‘Sawada-chan’ in return and making him squeak and flush with pleased embarrassment every time, much to her amusement.

“Tsu-chan, don’t tease Sawada-kun too much,” Uraraka chided lightly, turning to glance at the pair over her shoulder. “He has to get there in his own time.”

“I know,” Tsuyu said, tapping one large finger against her lips, tilting her head slightly as she regarded the boy. “Please forgive me Sawada-chan. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, _ribbit_.”

“I-It’s okay,” he assured her with a shaky smile. The force of the girl’s personality was a bit overwhelming, but her attention wasn’t entirely unwelcome, just unfamiliar. “It’s just that no one’s ever asked me to call them by their first name so quickly before-or, well, except for Haru. But she’s a special case.”

The girl blinked overlarge green eyes at him, clearly intrigued though her expression didn’t give much away. “Haru? Is she a classmate from your old school, _ribbit_?”

He shook his head. “No she goes to the all girl’s private school in Namimori. She’s really smart, but she can also be a little...much sometimes, I guess. She’s very unique, that’s for sure.”

Tsuyu nodded her understanding. “She sounds interesting; maybe we could be friends if we ever meet. Still, I don’t want you to feel obligated to play along if you’d rather be alone for a while, _ribbit_. Maybe we can talk more when we get to the cafe.”

Tsuna’s smile was much steadier this time. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

She nodded again in acknowledgment and in two long strides, she was pulling towards the front of their group to speak to Midoriya, leaving him to bring up the rear. Tsuna didn’t mind; in all honesty, he could use the minor break in socializing in order to better take in his surroundings and decompress a bit from the activity of the day. 

It was nice, he decided, as his eyes idly skated over the various shops lining the streets, observing without really absorbing the information. It was nice to hang out with his classmates in a casual setting, to get to know them better and allow them to get to know him a little better in return. He’d never really experience anything like it before, not even with his friends from his own world. 

Yamamoto and Gokudera, as much as they obviously cared about him, and as much as he fiercely cared for them in return, had mostly become his friends on accident, or largely due to Reborn’s own machinations. 

Even after nearly three years of friendship, he still wasn’t completely sure what exactly it was that had kept them around for so long after their first official meeting. Gokudera was a bit more understandable, seeing as how he believed he owed Tsuna something for ‘saving his life’, but why Yamamoto? Or Onii-san? Or Kyoko and Haru for that matter? 

What was it he had done to attract these amazing, courageous, loyal people into his life and somehow convince them to stay? He had no idea, and deep down he was terrified that one day they would leave as suddenly as they had arrived, leaving him behind in the process. 

Maybe becoming friends with his peers in this world, no matter how temporary that friendship would have to be, might help him to understand how to become a more worthy friend to those he cared for back home. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so deathly afraid of losing his friends, of driving them away with his own uselessness. Maybe then he-

“Oh, look!” Uraraka’s excited voice yanked him back to the present just in time to keep him from walking directly into Todoroki’s back. 

He flailed, pinwheeling his arms and dragging his heels to keep from colliding with the taller boy, a maneuver which he somehow managed to pull off without attracting the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Once he’d caught his breath, he turned to look with everyone else to where the girl was pointing. They’d stopped a few yards from the next block of storefronts and she was indicating the one closest to them.

“Isn’t that the tea shop Yaoyorozu was looking for?” She questioned the group at large. “We should text her and let her know we found it.”

“But it doesn’t look like it’s open yet,” Todoroki said, motioning towards the large plastic tarps that had been taped over the windows and door. 

“Did she perhaps get the date wrong?” Iida wondered, shading his eyes and squinting up at where a single handyman was standing on a thin metal scaffolding in the process of hanging large plexiglass letters over the entrance to the closed business. “This store certainly won’t be ready to serve anyone for a few weeks yet.”

Tsuyu had walked over to stand almost directly in front of the building, tilting her head back to regard the few letters that had been hung over the door so far. “I don’t think this is the place she was talking about, _ribbit_. This looks like it’s going to be a sit-down restaurant of some kind, not a tea shop.”

Midoriya had whipped out his phone, his curly head bent over it as he texted furiously. “Let me send her a message and ask. If she, Jirou-san, and Hagakure-san have already found the correct shop, maybe we could go join them instead.”

“Yeah, do that, would you Deku-kun?” Uraraka leaned over his shoulder to see the screen as he typed. “I think she said it wasn’t too far from here, maybe we could all meet up and then after lunch we can-”

Tsuna stopped listening.

His Intuition had started to buzz the second he’d laid eyes on the storefront, and when Tsuyu had moved closer it had started to hum even louder, making his skin prickle with agitation. 

While the others had been distracted, he’d been looking frantically around for the source of the threat, not understanding what could possibly be about to happen that would make his Intuition react this way. Were they about to be attacked on the street in broad daylight? Was a car going to lose control and veer onto the sidewalk? What was-?

His gaze had slid across Tsuyu again and in that split second his Intuition had flared to life and positively _shrieked_ with alarm.

He didn’t stop to think. He didn’t stop to process the situation or to spare a thought to the fact that the girl was a hero-in-training and therefore probably much more capable of handling dangerous situations than he was. His body just moved on it’s own.

Flame blazed to life in his core, but it couldn’t help him without a conduit and he didn’t have time to reach for his pills. He just hurled himself forward, racing past his startled classmates, vaguely hearing Uraraka’s and Midoriya’s voices raised in question, but he couldn’t focus on their words in the moment. He just knew he had to get to Tsuyu before whatever bad thing that was about to happen, happened.

When he was close enough he threw himself at the shocked girl, arms wrapping protectively around her torso as he hit her with the full force of his scrawny weight behind him, carrying her off her feet and towards the ground. He twisted reflexively, Reborn’s often repeated drills on how to take a fall hard-wired into his brain. 

He took the brunt of the fall on his shoulder, sending a jolt rushing through his whole body but thankfully no pain-he’d landed true. He rolled with the motion and ended up crouched protectively over the girl, covering as much of her as he could with his own body as he braced himself for whatever was coming next.

He didn’t have to wait long. Tsuna barely had time to draw in a full breath before there was a deafening crash of steel and glass from just behind him. He ducked automatically, tucking his head down between his shoulders as something whizzed by just inches above his scalp. He could feel Tsuyu’s breaths coming fast and panicked, his forehead nearly resting on her shoulder with how fully he’d shielded her with his own slight frame. 

The noise seemed to go on forever but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds before it stopped and the whole street went utterly silent except for the ringing in Tsuna’s ears. He held his position for a few more heartbeats, making sure nothing else was coming, that his Intuition had gone dormant once more before cautiously uncurling himself from around the girl, raising himself up on his hands and knees to look down at her worriedly.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking her over quickly, trying to see if she’d sustained any injuries. To his relief, it looked like she had managed to escape being cut by either glass or metal but he had hit her pretty hard; there might be bruising. “Do you hurt anywhere? I’m sorry I tackled you like that, there was no time to explain. Does anything feel broken?”

Tsuyu was staring up at him, stunned, her already wide eyes even rounder than usual. “Sawada-chan, you...”

He suddenly realized how close he was to her and felt his face abruptly burn bright red. “Ah! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to crowd you or-or anything, here, let me-”

He leaned backwards on his heels and tried to straighten up only to suck in a shocked breath as a line of fire erupted on the left side of his ribcage. He hunched over on instinct and felt more than saw the girl sit up hurriedly, reaching one large hand out towards him. “Ah, Sawada-chan! You’re bleeding, _ribbit_!”

“It’s okay,” he panted, gingerly straightening this time, keeping one hand pressed to the sluggishly bleeding gash in his side, feeling Tsuyu press her fingers lightly to the back of his hand. He grit his teeth and refused to look down, knowing seeing the wound would only make it hurt worse. “It’s okay, I’m okay. Are you-are you okay Asui-san?”

She blinked at him, startled. “Yes. Yes, Sawada-chan, I’m fine, _ribbit_.” 

She looked past him to survey the mess of twisted metal and shattered glass now covering the sidewalk directly where she’d been standing less than a minute before, seeing their friends running towards the two of them around the perimeter of the wreckage. The hand covering Tsuna’s on his side started to tremble and her voice wavered audibly.

“I’m just. I’m just fine, _ribbit_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I choose to put the frogwife in danger? We just don't know. Honestly she was just the person I imagined being in danger when I planned out this scene so. *shrugs* Sorry Tsu. ):
> 
> Let me know what you guys think! The next few chapters in the 'Unexpected' block will be pretty action-y but also have a lot of exposition so if all goes well the two should balance each other out.
> 
> As always y'all's reviews/kudos/etc. mean the world to me. I can honestly say I wouldn't be writing fanfic if it wasn't for you guys.
> 
> Hopefully I'll see y'all in two weeks. 
> 
> Until next time. (:
> 
> (Edit: Just so everybody knows I am primarily relying on the anime version of events for KHR; I read the manga from the point the anime left off (end of 10YL Arc) but everything from before that is entirely following the anime plot. For example, in the anime, Yamamoto never attempts to commit suicide and instead just sort of randomly becomes friends with Tsuna at the same time Gokudera does. Just something to keep in mind going forward!)


	8. Unexpected 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohmygosh hi you guys! :D 
> 
> So! I'm really sorry this took forever! I really don't have any good reasons for you guys except that life is a thing that happens and also writers block can eat my entire dick. Thanks so much to all of y'all for sticking with me during my (entirely unplanned oops) hiatus!
> 
> As an extra-special thank you, have this 2-for-1 double-length chapter-that-wouldn't end to make up for it! I dunno what happened it just turned out REALLY LONG. I thought about splitting it into two chapters but uh. The next chapters' supposed to get kinda action-y and I didn't wanna delay that any longer sooo. (:
> 
> !!CHAPTER CONTENT WARNING!!: There's some non-graphic discussion of past child abuse in this chapter towards the end y'all so tread lightly? There's no actual violence towards children or violent flashbacks or anything but there is talk of past physical trauma to a child so if that's a thing you need to be warned about here is your warning!
> 
> Enjoy! (:
> 
> My tumblr: wroth-and-ruin
> 
> (P.S I do not have a beta so please forgive any errors! Unfortunately there's only so many times I can read my own writing before the words start to blur together. ^^;)

Iida had called an ambulance while Midoriya had run to find All Might, who was their chaperone on the trip, to inform him of what had happened. It was a simple enough accident, nothing nefarious about it: the scaffolding the handyman had been using apparently hadn’t been up to code and had given way underneath him without any warning, sending several hundred pounds of metal piping and high-dollar plexiglass lettering tumbling to shatter in the street.

The maintenance man himself-Higurashi Touga-whose Quirk allowed him to stick to porous surfaces such as brick, had been fine, having managed to adhere to the wall of the building in time to avoid a nasty fall, but he’d been frantic with worry over the fate of the girl he’d last seen standing below his workstation just before the accident. It took first responders nearly ten minutes of repeated reassurances before the man had calmed down enough to understand the fact that not only was the girl alright, she had managed to escape entirely unharmed. 

To say Higurashi, a father with two young children of his own, was relieved to hear the news, would be a massive understatement.

Tsuna was beyond relieved himself to know that he had been the only one to receive any injuries, and even then very minor ones. Really, the paramedics had been entirely unnecessary. He’d had much worse wounds than this, and the gash on his side wasn’t even that bad-it had already stopped bleeding by the time the ambulance arrived. He didn’t even need to be looked at, really, he was fine!

Uraraka disagreed.

Uraraka _strongly_ disagreed.

When the girl caught him trying to sneak off into the gathered crowd she gently, but firmly, took him by the shoulders and steered him right back toward the flashing lights and navy uniforms clustered at the opposite end of the street.

She parked him on the narrow step situated below the open ambulance doors, insisting he stay put while she went to find someone to look at his ribs and fussing over him in a way so similar to how Kyoko-chan would react in the same situation that he didn’t have the heart to try plotting another escape attempt. He remained meekly in place while she momentarily disappeared, then reappeared in short order with a gray-haired EMT in tow.

The older woman smiled at him, and her resemblance to Shuzenji-san was such that he knew all at once he was not leaving without a preliminary checkup at the very least and so he internally sighed and gave up the fight with relatively good grace. 

He lifted his left arm with a slight wince at Uraraka’s urging and twisted his torso, carefully, to show the woman the damage.

The woman frowned and bent slightly to get a closer look. “Ah, I see.” She gave him another smile, this one more genuine and less professionally detached. “You must be the young man I keep hearing about. Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun? I’m Watanabe Ayaka. We’ve been looking all over for you. Word is you’re the big hero around these parts today.”

He felt his face flush at her words and he visibly twitched with the suppressed urge to flail his denial. “O-Oh no! No, I-I just did what I-I mean, that is to say I-I only did what I had to, or-or I mean what anyone would do! I-In my place, I’m-I’m sure.”

Her grin widened a bit more as she straightened and unfolded the glasses she had tucked into the chest pocket of her uniform. “I’m sure.”

Settling the frames on her nose, she turned to Uraraka, who was still hovering nearby. “I’m afraid I’m going to need you to rejoin your class group now young missy. I know you wish to stay with your friend but since the wound is severe enough to cause bleeding I want to bandage him up on site before I send him back to the school, otherwise Chiyo will have my guts for garters.”

The girl blinked up at her, then flicked her gaze over to Tsuna, who blinked back, just as uncomprehending. “Oh, but then, why can’t I-?”

“I’ll need to flush out the wound and, with your permission Sawada-kun, use my Quirk to check for any rib fractures.” Her tone gentled at their continued blank looks. “Which means he’ll have to remove his hoody and shirt so that I can view the injury in it’s entirety.”

Understanding hit the two teens like a freight train and both of their faces lit up crimson almost in unison.

“Oh!” Uraraka squeaked, round face aflame with the force of her blush. “I-I-I see. Um! Well, I-I’ll be waiting with everyone right over there Sawada-kun-” she gestured toward where the remainder of their class had gathered further down the road. Most of them appeared to be clustered around Tsuyu, no doubt asking for a recount of what had happened. 

Yagi-san’s skeletal blonde form was unmistakable even from this distance, his hunched posture nonetheless still making him head and shoulders taller than the teenagers around him. He appeared to be speaking on the phone with someone.

“-c-callmeifyouneedanythingokaygoodbye!”

Flustered, the girl hurried off to join their classmates, leaving the boy to hunch in mortified silence on the step of the ambulance, praying the ground would hurry up and swallow him whole. A light touch on his shoulder made him flinch and look up at the paramedic, having momentarily forgotten her existence in the wake of his mortification.

Watanabe’s smile was kind as she helped him to his feet. “Don’t worry young man. I’ve been doing this job a long time and I’ve got three boys of my own. I promise you don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.”

Tsuna hid his face in his hands and groaned with embarrassment but appreciated her attempt to lighten the mood. He accepted her hand up into the ambulance proper and took a seat on one of the benches, shrugging out of his ruined hoody while she angled the doors in such a way to shield the inside from anyone on the street. He couldn’t quite bring himself to remove his t-shirt right away, instead fiddling with the hem as she retrieved the supplies she would need to dress his wound. 

“Um,” he spoke up, curiosity getting the better of him. Her likeness to Shuzenji-san allowed him to be a bit bolder in the presence of a stranger then he might otherwise have managed, though he kept his eyes trained on the floor between his tennis shoes. “Y-You mentioned your Quirk before. Something about rib fractures. How…How does it work, if-if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well aren’t you a polite young man.” She pulled a stool out from under the bench across from him and settled the items she’d gathered on a tray close at hand. 

“Quirk Law dictates that I have to explain my Quirk to all my patients to the best of my ability and obtain their written consent in order to use it on them. Since you’re a minor under the care of a boarding school I already had All Might co-sign for you but if you choose not to allow me to perform a Quirk-based examination on you you are perfectly within your right’s to do so Sawada-kun. If that’s what you choose I would advise you have Chiyo-Recovery Girl that is-take some x-rays when you get back to the school however; from everything I’ve heard that was a very daring rescue you performed and it sounds like you hit the ground quite hard. Asui-chan in particular was very adamant that I check you over from top to bottom for even the tiniest signs of damage.”

He jerked in surprise and looked up reflexively, meeting her kind gray eyes with his own worried brown ones. “You checked on Asui-san? Is she okay? I. I hit her pretty hard. I tried not to, I tried to take the fall like Reborn taught me but I’ve never tried it while tackling someone before, did I...did I do it right? Is she...” He swallowed hard. “Is she okay?”

She held his gaze unwaveringly for a moment more before nodding. “Yes. A bit shaken, but that’s to be expected, though she’s holding up well, which I suppose is also to be expected from a Hero Course student. She had one or two bumps, a friction burn on her calf, but considering you’re only a few inches taller and she probably outweighs you by almost ten pounds I daresay it could have been much worse. The mental processing power of your Quirk-the amount of calculation it would have taken to know just how much force and speed it would take to hit her while causing the least amount of damage on impact while also compensating for your own mass in the fall, and the amount of time in which you managed it…it’s truly extraordinary young man. Asui-chan was very lucky you were there today.”

He just stared at her, eyes huge and round, completely unprepared for such frank praise for his abilities and having absolutely no idea how to respond. But he knew he should say something. His mom would want him to be polite. “Ah...thank you?”

She smiled and pat him fondly on the knee, a warm, grandmotherly gesture he had no frame of reference for outside of Shuzenj-san. “You’re very welcome. Now. Shirt off young man, let’s get a look at that battle wound of yours.”

His face flushed once more but he steeled himself against his natural shyness and managed to pull his shirt over his head without further delay. 

Distracted by his own awkwardness, he almost missed the woman’s sharp, shocked inhalation when she finally got a look at his bare torso, but he caught it and looked over at her in concern. “Watanabe-san?” 

Her sharp eyes were flicking rapidly behind her glasses, assessing, and he twisted gingerly to glance down at his ribs, wincing when he saw the dark reddish-brown slash and the rapidly purpling stain of bruising spreading out from the afflicted area. No wonder she’d gasped; it was worse that he’d thought. It was definitely going to scar. _Oh well_ , he sighed mentally. _Another one to add to the collection_. 

Heaven knew Spartan training and constant attacks from people wanting him to be/not to be the Tenth Generation Vongola boss meant he’d accumulated a fair number of scars over the years, the most prominent of which being the mirrored starburst scars on the front and back of his left shoulder, just before the joint began, where Tazaru’s Spikes had punched through him the year previous. Wounds obtained from Storm flames and Storm box weapons always left nasty scars.

When he looked back up Watanabe had busied herself with opening the plastic pouches containing the bandages and mixing together the saline solution to clean the cut with. “That looks pretty bad alright Sawada-kun,” she confirmed, her face still turned away from him. “You’ll definitely want Recovery Girl to heal it up for you once you get back to U.A. I’ll just put a field dressing on it in the meantime and make sure no debris remain in the wound, okay?”

He nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

She turned back to him, her smile once more unfailingly gentle as she directed him to raise his arm slightly. “This is going to sting a bit I’m afraid.”

She wasn’t wrong. Cleaning the cut did sting but she was efficient and experienced, chattering lightly about anything and everything in order to distract him, which he appreciated immensely. Soon enough she was done and having him hold down the cotton pad over his ribs as she quickly wound the strips around his middle to keep it in place. Taping everything was the work of seconds and then she was stepping back to survey her work. 

“Looks good! I have to say you took that very well for someone so young Sawada-kun, I’ve had veteran Heroes twice your age in here who squawked more than that,” she teased. “Tell me the truth, you’ve done this before haven’t you?”

He grinned bashfully back at her, seeing no reason to lie. “Once or twice. I have to say, you’re much better at it than Doctor Shamal. He usually complains the whole time about having to work with guys; you’re much more professional. It’s a nice change.”

“Doctor Shamal? Is he your family doctor?”

“You could say that.” _If you spelled Family with a capital ‘F’_. 

Moving slowly, he shrugged on the velcro-front scrub shirt Watanabe had provided in order to replace his blood-stained t-shirt until he could return to the school. Although since he’d been wearing a borrowed U.A school t-shirt in the first place, he had no idea what he was going to do once he got back. Maybe he could somehow salvage this one? He tucked it into his pocket just in case. “I mostly only see him when my dad is in town or when something really bad happens and someone needs medical attention right away. Otherwise he’s off getting up to who knows what.”

She blinked. “I...see.” Pushing her glasses up her nose, she nudged the stool back out of the way with her foot and shifted to stand in front of him, a clipboard in her hands that she’d retrieved while he’d been distracted. 

“Alright so, a quick rundown of how my Quirk operates. My Quirk is called Bone Echo, and basically how it works is I position my hand over an area of your skeleton I think may have been damaged, like so-” She demonstrated, holding her splayed hand steady a few inches away from his sternum. “-and produce a subsonic sound, inaudible to most without Quirk-enhanced hearing but audible to myself, which vibrates the bones at a cellular level in a localized area while I listen for imperfections in the echo the sound produces. While my Quirk is nowhere near as foolproof or concrete as an X-ray machine, it’s more than accurate enough to locate obvious breaks or dislocations and can even detect micro-fractures, which while not technically useful in my line of work, is a neat trick and I live to gloat.” 

She winked, prompting a startled grin out of him. “So how ‘bout it sonny, you want me to echolocate your bones or would you rather wait and have Chiyo check you out using the non-witch doctor method up at the school? Truth be told I didn’t notice any obvious breaks when I was cleaning your wounds, otherwise I wouldn’t have wrapped your ribs, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. I would rather check and have nothing be wrong then send you home without checking and find out later from Chiyo that I missed something, but as I said the decision is up to you. Either way I think you’ll be fine until she can have a look at you.”

Tsuna chewed on his lower lip, considering. On the one hand, he’d broken or cracked ribs on numerous occasions prior to this and so he knew what it felt like. Although there was some soreness when he breathed deeply, there was no sharp, shooting pain, and when she’d lightly pressed on the left half of his ribcage earlier, there had been some tenderness, most likely from the surface bruising, but no grating or sickening movement under his skin. His ribs were more than likely fine, but...her Quirk sounded...really kind of awesome actually, and he kind of wanted to know what it felt like to have his bones vibrate. Would it tickle?

Somewhat guiltily, he nodded and signed the form where she directed him to, hoping he wouldn’t be wasting too much of her time. He knew it was her job and she seemed so nice but he knew she more than likely had more important things to be doing. Hopefully it would be a relatively quick process. 

She had him turn so his left side was facing her, his left hand grabbing his right arm to keep it out of the way of her inspection-“I already know your arm isn’t broken young man!”-then she held out both hands, her index fingers and thumbs almost touching, her palms hovering a few inches above his skin, and concentrated.

He watched in avid fascination as the tendons in her softly wrinkled throat pulled taut and started to shiver the barest amount, and although he couldn’t hear anything, as she’d said he wouldn’t, all of the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood up as goosebumps swept over his flesh. It was the oddest sensation; not ticklish exactly, but he could definitely tell something was happening, almost like the barest edge of a buzz underneath his skin, stopping just before it became a full blown itch. It wasn’t pleasant exactly, but it wasn’t necessarily unpleasant either. It simply was.

It had only been happening for about ten seconds when he first saw her pale eyebrows twitch and then draw down sharply as her mouth twisted in a frown. He frowned as well, not sure what the problem was, since he was certain his ribs weren’t broken. Perhaps there was a hairline fracture neither of them had expected? That could be a problem, but if Shuzenji-san’s Quirk really did work the way everyone said it did, he was sure it would be fine long enough for him to get back to the nurse’s office. He couldn’t think of anything else that could possibly be causing her to make that face. 

He couldn’t stop a small jolt of surprise when the sensation suddenly increased, spreading in a static-y cloud out from the area around his wound to encompass his entire torso. Watanabe frowned even harder in response to whatever her expanded examination yielded.

The feeling abruptly faded away as the woman lowered her hands, still frowning, though she didn’t speak for a long moment. Just as he’d begun to fidget, she spoke once more. “Sawada-kun, is it alright if I ask you to rate your pain level for me right now?”

Thrown, it took him a second to realize what she was asking him. “My pain level? Er...I’m sorry, could you be more specific?”

She blinked, some of the distance disappearing from her gaze as she refocused on him and she offered him a lopsided smile. He couldn’t help but notice it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest, little to no pain, ten being an intolerable amount of pain, how much pain are you in right now?”

“Oh, uh.” He took a moment to really think about it. Considering the worst physical pain he’d ever been in had been during his fight with Daemon Spade…“Um, I’d say I’m somewhere around a-a...three maybe? Or maybe a two. No, no a three. Yeah. Three.” 

Honestly it really was closer to a two but her face had done something funny when he’d said that and his Intuition had flared so he’d quickly changed his answer back. He just wasn’t sure why.

She nodded, her expression mostly back to normal as she smiled at him. “Alright then young man, I think you’re good for now. Nothing’s broken and although you do have the tiniest crack in one of your lower ribs, it shouldn’t be anything one of Chiyo’s healing kisses can’t cure.” 

Grabbing another clipboard, she quickly scrawled something down, tore the page free and handed it to him. “Do me a favor Sawada-kun and give that to Recovery Girl when you see her, first thing when you get back to the school. It’s just a few notes for her on your injuries and telling her that I haven’t given you anything for the pain or infection in case she wants to prescribe you some antibiotics.”

He glanced over the note as he folded it into quarters to fit into his back pocket but it was written in some form of shorthand and he couldn’t read it, but he nodded to show he understood. He followed the woman to the back of the ambulance and let her help him down. He couldn’t bow properly in his current state but he did so as deeply as he could and thanked her for her time and assistance.

She grinned and inclined her head back at him. “It was nice to meet you Sawada-kun. Let’s try not to see too much of each other in the future, alright?”

-

Shuzenji Chiyo was not a temperamental woman. She couldn’t afford to be, not in her line of work. Oh she got angry occasionally, of course she did, she wasn’t a saint, and there were times where she couldn’t help but get more than a little irritated when _certain people_ didn’t look after themselves in the way that they should (elsewhere on campus, Toshinori and Midoriya both sneezed in tandem).

But she didn’t fly off the handle at every little thing. She was a veteran Hero and a nurse of more than fifty years who had willingly chosen to spend her twilight years working in a high school that trained rookie Heroes. If she couldn’t keep a tight rein on her temper her heart would have given out decades ago from the sheer stress of it all and her blood pressure would be through the roof.

Her iron clad control was hard forged and hard won and she took great pride in the fact that she had never, not once ever in her life raised her voice at a patient, no matter how senselessly stupid some of the actions which had landed them in her care were.

So the fact that she was currently incandescent with rage was not a fact to be taken lightly.

When she’d gotten a call from Toshinori earlier in the day letting her know there had been an incident at the mall and some of the students had sustained minor injuries, she’d been concerned but not unduly worried, especially not after she’d heard Watanabe Ayaka’s team had been the ones to respond.

Ayaka had been in one of the first medical classes she’d ever mentored after she’d finished her own schooling and the two of them had been friends for years. She trusted the younger woman implicitly and knew she’d look after Chiyo’s kids like they were her own until Recovery Girl had the chance to see to them herself. She saw no cause for alarm.

Young Asui and young Sawada had obediently come straight to her office for a checkup once arriving back at the school, appearing repentant (Asui) and sheepish (Sawada) by turns and followed by a frazzled Toshinori. It had been the poor boy’s first outing since his retirement and apparently he wasn’t adjusting to it as well as either of them had hoped. She’d made a mental note to wrangle him into sitting down and having a chat with her about it over tea within the next week as she turned her attention to her young charges.

Asui had gotten off astonishingly light given the circumstances, but she still bestowed a healing kiss upon the girl and had to be a bit more stern than usual in her instance that she go and rest for a while in the dorms before she would agree to leave Sawada behind. Chiyo had sent Toshinori off as well to make sure the girl actually obeyed her directive and then focused on her last patient.

The boy had hunkered down out of the way on one of the spare cots in the corner-the same one he’d been using when he was still sleeping in her office-spine curved and arms tucked close to his body in a way that didn’t so much scream ‘I don’t want to be here’ as softly whisper it. But then, she was used to that; no one ever really wanted to be in a doctor’s office.

Leaning her weight against her cane, she smiled up at the young man. “So I hear you took quite a tumble today,” she said, smothering a sigh when he jerked. So jumpy, this boy. “All Might informed me that Ayaka-chan’s crew was on scene today. That’s good. They’re some of the best. I should know, since I trained young Watanabe myself.”

He gaped at her. “You trained-!” Then he started as if he had just remembered something and scrambled around on the bed for a moment, turning to reach into his back pocket while remaining seated. “Oh! Um, yes, Watanabe-san was very nice, and she, she, uh, she used her Quirk and she asked me to um, give you-this!” Withdrawing a folded piece of paper, he offered it to her.

Frowning in confusion, she took it, wondering what could possibly be so urgent Ayaka wouldn’t have just picked up the phone and called-

As her eyes skimmed over the other woman’s coded results from her brief Bone Echo examination, Chiyo felt her blood turn to ice in her veins.

“Shuzenji-san?”

She looked up at Sawada’s hesitant call of her name to find him analyzing her expression worriedly. “Are you okay? Watanabe-san said one of my ribs had a small crack in it but I’m fine, really. I know its Saturday, and if you’re tired, I can just wait for it to heal the normal way. I-I’ve had broken ribs before, and this really doesn’t hurt that bad in comparison. Honest.”

As she strode through the halls of the school on her way to Nezu’s office, file folder clenched tightly in one gloved hand as the point of her cane rapped sharply against the floor in the other, her heart clenched anew at the earnestness in the young man’s face when he’d essentially told her not to worry about him and to put her needs above his own.

Even though it was her job-no, her duty and _privilege_ , to look out for her students, to put their health and wellness first, and she had never once considered it a burden, the fact that he had so willingly disregarded his own wellbeing in the face of her potential discomfort spoke volumes to the selflessness of spirit embodied within one Sawada Tsunayoshi.

That only made the evidence she now held, which spoke of the terrible abuse he had apparently been suffering for years, all the more abhorrent. 

She couldn’t clearly remember now what she’d said to reassure him that she was alright, just knew he must have taken her at her word. Though he continued to watch her apprehensively as he followed her into a side room set off her office where x-rays were taken on the rare occasion they were required.

Quirks weren’t magic. Her ability to heal was only as strong as her patient’s body and shattered or splintered bones didn’t always heal correctly on the first go ‘round, even when her kids were in excellent physical health, as young Midoriya could attest. The human body could make mistakes; bones could set themselves incorrectly, joints could realign improperly. Sometimes the pattern of healing needed to be checked on between sessions to make sure everything was progressing as it should.

Sawada hadn’t questioned her motives for wanting to x-ray his chest, neck, and arms, for which she was grateful. It had taken everything she had to keep her face impassive as she examined the results on the screen, and if her voice had audibly wavered when she confirmed Ayaka’s diagnosis of a hairline crack in his lower fourth rib on the lefthand side, well, she was old. These things were to be expected in someone her age.

She had printed off his x-rays for further study and pressed a Quirk-laden kiss to the young man’s forehead before sending him on his way with a handful of gummies when he admitted he’d missed lunch due to all the ruckus.

She was afraid she might have let her emotions get the better of her a little when she’d activated her Quirk and it might have packed more of a punch than usual. The poor dear had seemed a tad dizzy afterwards, though he’d been quick to reassure her that he could make it back to the dorms on his own when she’d suggested calling Toshinori back to escort him.

He’d been so frantic at the prospect of being an inconvenience she’d allowed herself to be persuaded, letting him depart her office on his own.

She hadn’t been able to quell the urge to check in on the Heights Alliance extension a short while later and she hadn’t bothered to hide her relief when Aizawa answered and confirmed the boy had made it back in once piece. She had a feeling she had roused the man’s suspicions with her outsized reaction, and if that were the case then more’s the better. As soon as she was done with Nezu she planned to turn right around and call Eraserhead and All Might into her office to speak with them about this situation. It could not continue, and it would not continue. Not on her watch.

She had tried to sit down and organize the information clinically, in a detached, professional manner. Starting with the scans of his ribcage and working outwards, she had used a red marker to delineate the damage she was seeing, high-lighting it and adding quick notes beside each circle with her approximate guess of how old each injury was based on remodeling. 

She’d gotten about halfway through before she’d been forced to stop because her hands were shaking too badly to continue, the stark black-and-white of the x-ray stained all over with red marks and her eyes burning with ruthlessly repressed tears, gritting her teeth so hard she could hear the bones grinding in her jaw.

The same thing had happened when she’d tried to outline the damage to his arms and shoulders, making sure to note the scar Ayaka had mentioned though she hadn’t seen it for herself, and she’d only managed a passing glance at his upper spinal scans before her composure had deserted her entirely. She’d shoved everything, including Ayaka’s note, into a spare folder, grabbed her cane, and stormed off to the main building.

Saturdays were one of the few days Nezu actually kept the outer door to his office closed as a deterrent to bored students, but she knew from experience that the principal never locked it. When she reached the door she shoved it open with admittedly unnecessary force, startling the woman sitting at the desk beside the inner door.

“Recovery Girl!” Mashiro Hitsuji, Nezu’s secretary, gasped in surprise and quickly got to her feet. “Is something the matter? What’s going on?”

Chiyo winced, momentarily derailed in her pursuit. She’d forgotten the young woman would be working today. Nezu so rarely required a secretary, except on weekends to catch up on paperwork, or when the calls were coming thick and fast from rabid media outlets and frantic parents alike after a villain attack on the school or the students.

“Ah, please excuse me dear. The door just got away from me, I always forget how weighted it is.” She waved the girl off as she crossed to the door next to her desk. 

She paused to offer her a reassuring smile, hoping it looked more sincere then she currently felt. There was no reason for her to take her bad temper out on the innocent receptionist. “Please go back to whatever you were doing before I interrupted you. I just needed to speak with Nezu for a minute. He’s not too busy I trust?”

Dark eyes flicked nervously to where Chiyo’s hand was already resting on the handle. “Um, well, I-I don’t think s-?”

“Good.” 

Without further ado, she slipped into the dimly lit inner sanctum of the head of U.A High, making sure the door was firmly shut behind her. She trusted Hitsuji completely and knew anything overheard would never leave this room but Nezu’s open door policy was the worst-kept secret on campus; anyone could walk into the outer office while she was having her discussion with the principal and for the sake of Sawada’s privacy, she couldn’t risk anything leaking out. The x-rays in her hands already felt like enough of an invasion of trust for one lifetime.

Nezu was working at his desk and glanced up when she entered, the genteel expression on his face giving nothing away. If he was disquieted by her unexpected presence in his office, he didn’t show it. “Recovery Girl! To what do I owe the pleasure of-?”

She crossed the room as swiftly as she was able and smacked the file down on his desk, feeling as if she had to keep this knowledge to herself for one second longer she would surely explode. “Look at this.”

Nezu regarded her for a beat before complying without comment, sliding the folder towards himself and flipping it open. 

She paced, unable to watch as he rifled through the contents, the slick sounds of the x-rays shuffling together as he spread them out on his desk and read over them too loud in the otherwise still quiet of his office. Her soft footfalls and the muffled tapping of her cane on the carpet were the only other sounds for a long, long time.

After what felt like an age, Nezu gathered the files back together in a stack and returned them neatly to the folder. Closing it, he rested his folded paws together on top. His customary smile was nowhere to be seen. “This is Sawada?”

Thank God for that brain of his. “Yes.” Her voice was curt, clipped. Awaiting judgment. Everything hinged on his next words. Her entire body practically vibrated with tension and her fist was clenched tight around the bulb of her cane.

The deafening silence was finally broken by his tired sigh. “Chiyo...”

Her heart broke. “No!” She spun to glare up at him. “ _No_! Don’t you dare! Don’t you _dare_ tell me nothing can be done Nezu! I won’t hear it!” 

She grabbed the folder only to fling it back down on top of the desk, scattering lurid black and white and red-red-red photographs everywhere. “Look here! And here! Healed corner and bucket handle fractures in both arms, evidence of multiple subluxations of both shoulder joints, both his collarbones were all but shattered at some point, and every. single. one of his ribs shows signs of remodeled compression fractures!”

She slammed her free hand down on the desk and glared at the principal as fiercely as she could through a haze of tears. “Someone had been using that boy as a punching bag for years Nezu! Years!” She jabbed one gloved finger back towards the door. “Sawada is only fifteen years old! For him to have sustained and healed so many skeletal injuries at his age, without the benefit of Quirk-enhanced medical treatment might I add, he would have had to endure a nearly daily amount of senseless brutality almost since infancy!”

She paused to draw in a shuddering breath and turned her back on him, knowing she was crying freely now and incapable of doing a damn thing about it. “The worst is-are the injuries to the spinous processes. There are healed compression fractures to his upper vertebrae that show where someone must have wrapped their hands around his neck a-a-and sh-shook h-him until-until-” Her voice cracked on a sob and she couldn’t go on.

A soft pressure on her shoulder signaled that the small creature had left his chair and rounded his desk to rest his paw on her arm. “Humans,” he said gravely, no hint of his usual carefree cheerfulness in his voice. “Can be unimaginably cruel, especially to those they deem lesser than themselves.”

He would know.

Chiyo took a moment to breathe and fought to get a better handle on her emotions. It was a losing battle. “I saw the signs,” she continued dully. “How could I not? I’ve never seen anyone so afraid of their own shadow. He said he’d been bullied but this...to cause these kinds of breaks, it would take strength. In a world without Quirks, it would take adult strength, without question.”

“Male adult strength?”

She shrugged, noncommittal. “On some of the newer injuries maybe. On the...on the ones on his vertebrae yes definitely but any sufficiently strong woman with a bat or broom handle could have caused some of this damage, or additional, soft-tissue injuries.” 

She pulled a tissue from a pocket of her coat to dab at her eyes, then straightened her spine as best she could and turned to face him, clear desperation and determination intermingled in the set of her jaw. “Please tell me there’s something that can be done.” She heard the pleading note in her voice and ignored it, already knowing what he would say.

Nezu sighed again. “Chiyo, while I concede you have a solid basis for beginning an investigation into potential parental abuse, who’s going to launch it? On what grounds? Sawada hasn’t said anything to us, and the legality of how and why you obtained these x-rays in the first place is dubious at best-no, don’t argue with me, you know it’s true. I know the content of those standard EMT release waivers the same as you and while Watanabe-san’s proverbial tail may be covered, you are on shakier ground, full disclosure-wise. Did you tell Sawada you wanted his x-rays in order to open an abuse investigation?”

“Of course not-”

“Of course not, because no charges have been filed. Why? Because no fingers have been pointed. And even if they were, who would they be pointed at? In case you’ve forgotten, Sawada doesn’t technically exist as far as this world is concerned Chiyo, and we can’t keep him here against his will. Recovery Girl, I’m sorry, believe me, I am, but in this particular instance there is simply nothing we can feasibly do beyond turning our concerns over to the school counselors and recommending they speak to Sawada about it themselves.”

She’d known already. She’d known deep down that there was nothing that she could do long before she’d even set foot in this office. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it. Hadn’t wanted to believe that even with all the proof she had, all the hard evidence she’d gathered, in the end she’d still be forced to send that sweet, shy, heroic boy back to his abusers in his world where she couldn’t protect him. She was going to have to let Sawada willingly walk back into hell alone when the time came and she already knew it was going to break her heart irreparably to do so.

And just like that all of the fight went out of her at once and then she was no longer Shuzenji Chiyo, woman on a mission, instead she was just Shuzenji Chiyo, tired, heartsore, and feeling every one of her seventy five years. She sighed deeply, bowing her head in pained acquiescence.

An understanding paw was laid back on her arm and the small creature stretched up on his tip-toes to tap his forehead against hers in rare show of deeply held affection. Nezu’s high-pitched voice contained an ocean of understanding and kindness as he said, “As much as we might wish it weren’t the case, there are some battles we just can’t fight for them. No matter how much we might want to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So. I'm aware this chapter was kinda Exposition Central but here me out:
> 
> I also have no idea where the fuck this sub-sub-subplot came from but.
> 
> Here it is. (This author's note is gonna get a little long.)
> 
> For those of you who do not watch read/KHR (and there are quite a few of you and I am flattered and a little confused?? Y'all must have a lot of faith in me!) basically what happened is that in canon Tsuna was in a fight where he was picked up by the throat and shaken until every bone in his body shattered. Then he borrowed a friend's ability in order to instantaneously fuse all his bones back together again so he could continue the fight. 
> 
> I did some research and while this particular scenario would not cause the exact same type of wounds as a very young child being shaken by an adult who was abusing them, the damage to his bones would have appeared very similar on an x-ray, especially to someone who was not used to reading x-rays SPECIFICALLY to look for signs of abuse. Either way, it would have looked very suspicious on an x-ray and also sounded very suspicious to Watanabe when she was using her Quirk; all she would have heard were the vibrations bouncing back from A LOT of healed breaks. It would make sense for her to suspect abuse.
> 
> This subsubsubplot DOES have a purpose (sorta) I swear, just bear with me you guys. (: Also let me know what you think! The next chapter will get back to your regularly scheduled programming, but I wanted to introduce this element now before the ball really gets rolling. Hope it wasn't too weird for you guys! 
> 
> Also you might have noticed I switched to once a month updates for this fic. I think that'll be more attainable for me going forward. Let's hope so anyway!
> 
> See you next time. (:
> 
> (P.S Please do not take my fic as law. I have no Earthly clue how a real school would handle an abuse case like this but I went with what I thought would make the most sense in context.)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Anemoia](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14917260) by [decay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/decay/pseuds/decay)




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